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FRANCE AND 




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NORTH AMEKICA. 






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A SERIES OF HISTORICAL NARRATIVES. 



FRANCIS PAEKMAN, 



AOTHOK OF "HISTORY OF THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC," " PBAIEIB AMI* 
BOCKT MOUNTAIN LIFE," ETC. 



PART SECOND. 



BOSTON: 
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 

1874. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by 

Francis Parkman, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of MassacIioBett*. 



CAMBRIDGE : 
BTEBEOTTPED AND PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND gOH. 



THE 



JESUITS 



NORTH AMERICA 



SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



^ FRANCIS PARKMAN, 

y AUTHOK OF "PIOJJEEE8 OF FKAIfCE IN THE NEW WOBLD.' 




BOSTON: 
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 

1874. 



1^63 



fintered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by 

Francis Parkman, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



BY TRANSFER 



\ 



y 



i 



PEEFACE. 



Few passages of history are more striking than 
those which record the efforts of the earlier French 
Jesuits to convert the Indians. Full as they 
are of dramatic and philosophic interest, bearing 
strongly on the political destinies of America, and 
closely involved with the history of its native pop- 
ulation, it is wonderful that they have been left 
so long in obscurity. While the infant colonies of 
England still clung feebly to the shores of the At- 
lantic, events deeply ominous to their future were 
in progress, unknown to them, in the very heart of 
the continent. It will be seen, in the sequel of this 
volume, that civil and religious liberty found strange 
allies in this Western World. 
• The sources of information concerning the early 
Jesuits of New France are very copious. During 
a period of forty years, the Superior of the Mission 

a* [v] 



VI PREFACE. 

sent, every summer, long and detailed reports, em- 
bodying or accompanied by the reports of his sub- 
ordinates, to the Provincial of the Order at Paris, 
where they were annually published, in duodecimo 
volumes, forming the remarkable series known as 
the Jesuit delations. Though the productions of 
men of scholastic training, they are simple and 
often crude in style, as might be expected of nar- 
ratives hastily written in Indian lodges or rude 
mission-houses in the forest, amid annoyances and 
interruptions of all kinds. In respect to the value 
of then- contents, they are exceedingly imequal. 
Modest records of marvellous adventures and sacri- 
fices, and vivid pictures of forest-life, alternate with 
prolix and monotonous details of the conversion of 
individual savages, and the praiseworthy deportment 
of some exemplary neophyte. With regard to the 
condition and character of the primitive inhabitants 
of North America, it is impossible to exaggerate 
their value as an authority. L should add, that the 
closest examination has left me no doubt that these 
missionaries wrote in perfect good faith, and that 
the delations hold a high place as authentic and 
trustworthy historical documents. They are very 
scarce, and no complete collection of them exists in 
America. The entire series was, however, repub- 



PEEFACE. \U 

lished, in 1858, by the Canadian government, in 
three large octavo volumes.-^ 

These form* but a part of the surviving writings 
of the French- American Jesuits. Many additional 
reports, memoirs, journals, and letters, official and 
private, have come down to us ; some of which 
have recently been printed, while others remain in 
manuscript. Nearly every prominent actor in the 
scenes to be described has left his own record of 
events in which he bore part, in the shape of re- 
ports to his Superiors or letters to his friends. I 
have studied and compared these authorities, as 
well as a great mass of collateral evidence, with 
more than usual care, striving to secure the great- 
est possible accuracy of statement, and to reproduce 
an image of the past with photographic clearness 
and truth. 

The introductory chapter of the volume is inde- 
pendent of the rest ; but a knowledge of the facts 
set forth in it is essential to the full understanding 
of the narrative which follows. 

In the collection of material, I have received 

1 Both editions — the old and the new — are cited in the following 
pages. Where the reference is to the old edition, it is indicated by the 
name of the publisher (Cramoisy), appended to the citation, in brackets. 

In extracts given in the notes, the antiquated orthography and ac 
centuation are preserved. 



Viii PREFACE. 

valuable aid from Mr. J. G. Shea, Rev. Felix 
Martin, S.J., the Abbes Laverdiere and H. R. 
Casgrain, Dr. J. C. Tache, and the late Jacques 
Viger, Esq. 

I propose to devote the next volume of this se- 
ries to the discovery and occupation by the French 
of the Valley of the Mississippi. 

Boston, 1st May, 186T 



COJS^TElSrTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

native tkibe3. 

Pagb 

Divisions. — The Algonquins. — The Hurons. — Their Houses. — 

Fortifications. — Habits. — Arts. — Women. — Trade. — Festivi- 
ties. — Medicine. — The Tobacco Nation. — The Neutrals. — The 
Eries. — The Andastes. — The Iroquois. — Indian Social and Po- 
litical Organization. — Iroquois Institutions, Customs, and Char- 
acter. — Indian Religion and Superstitions. — The Indian Mind xix 

CHAPTER I. 
1634. 

NOTRE-DAME DES ANGE3. 

Quebec in 1634. — Father Le Jeune. — The Mission-House. — Ita 
Domestic Economy. — The Jesuits and their Designs .... I 

CHAPTER n. 

LOYOLA AND THE JESUITS. 

Conversion of Loyola. — Foundation of the Society of Jesus. — Prep- 
aration of the Novice. — Characteristics of the Order. — The 
Canadian Jesmts 8 

CHAPTER m. 
1632, 1633. 

PAUL LE JEUNE. 

tie Jeune's Voyage. — His First Pupils. — His Studies. — His Indian 
Teacher. — Winter at the Mission-House. — Le Jeime's School. 

— Reinforcements 14 

[ix] 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

1633, 1634. 

LE JEUNE AND THE HUKTEES. 

Paqb 
Le Jeune joins the Indians. — Tlie Eirst Encampment. — The Apos- 
tate. — Forest Life in Winter. — The Indian Hut. — The Sor- 
cerer. — His Persecution of the Priest. — Evil Company. — Magic. 
— Incantations. — Christmas. — Starvation. — Hopes of Conver- 
sion. — Backsliding. — Peril and Escape of Le Jeune. — His Re- 
turn 23 



CHAPTER V. 

1633, 1634. 

THE HURON MISSION. 

Plans of Conversion. — Aims and Motives. — Indian Diplomacy. — 
Hurons at Quebec. — Councils. — The Jesuit Cliapel. — Le 
Borgne. — The Jesuits thwarted. — Their Perseverance. — The 
Journey to the Hurons. — Jean de BrcTjeuf. — The Mission be- 
gun 42 



CHAPTER VL 

1634, 1635. 

BREBEUF AND HIS ASSOCIATES. 

The Huron Mission-House. — Its Inmates. — Its Furniture. — Its 
Guests. — The Jesuit as a Teacher. — As an Engineer. — Bap- 
tisms. — Huron Village Life. — Festivities and Sorceries. — The 
Dream Feast. — The Priests accused of Magic. — The Drought 
and the Red Cross 69 



CHAPTER VII. 

1636, 1637. 

THE FEAST OF THE DEAD. 

Huron Graves. — Preparation for the Ceremony. — Disinterment. — 
The Mourning. — The Funeral March. — The Great Sepulchre. 
— Funeral Games. — Encampment of the Mourners. — Gifts. — 
Harangues. — Frenzy of the Crowd. — The Closing Scene. — 
Another Rite. — The Captive Iroquois. — The Sacrifice ... 71 



CONTENTS. Xi 

CHAPTER Vni. 

1636, 1637. 

the huron and the jesuit. 

Pagb 

Enthusiasm for the Mission. — Sickness of the Priests. — The Pest 

among the Hurons. — The Jesuit on his Rounds. — Efforts at 
Conversion. — Priests and Sorcerers. — The Man-Devil. — The 
Magician's Prescription. — Indian Doctors and Patients. — Cov- 
ert Baptisms. — Self-Devotion of the Jesuits 83 



CHAPTER IX. 

1637. 

CHARACTER OF THE CANADIAN JESTTITS. 

Jean de Brebeuf. — Charles Garnier. — Joseph Marie Chaumonot. — 
Noel Chahanel. — Isaac Jogues. — Other Jesuits. — Nature of 
their Faith. — Supernaturalism. — Visions. — Miracles ... 99 



CHAPTER X. 
1637-1640. 

PERSECUTION. 

Ossossan^. — The New Chapel. — A Triumph of the Faith. — The 
Nether Powers. — Signs of a Tempest. — Slanders. — Rage 
against the Jesuits. — Their Boldness and Persistency. — Noc- 
turnal Council. — Danger of the Priests. — Brebeuf 's Letter. — 
Narrow Escapes. — Woes and Consolations 110 



CHAPTER XI. 

1638-1640. 

PRIEST AND PAGAN. 

Du Peron's Journey. — Daily Life of the Jesuits. — Their Mis- 
sionary Excursions. — Converts at Ossossane. — Machinery of 
Conversion. — Conditions of Baptism. — BacksUders. — The 
Converts and their Countrymen. — The Cannibals at St. Joseph 127 



Xii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER Xn. 
1639, 1640. 

THK TOBACCO NATION. — THE NEUTRALS. 

PAoa 

A Change of Plan. — Sainte Marie. — Mission of the Tobacco Na- 
tion. — Wintei Journeying. — Reception of the Missionaries. — 
Superstitious Terrors. — Peril of Garnier and Jogues. — Mission 
of the Neutrals. — Huron Intrigues. — Miracles. — Fury of the 
Indians. — intervention of Saint Michael. — Return to Sainte 
Marie. — Intrepidity of the Priests. — Their Mental Exaltation . 138 

CHAPTER XIII. 
1636-1646. 

QITEBEC AND ITS TENANTS. 

The New Governor. — Edifying Examples. — Le Jeune's Corre- 
spondents. — Rank and Devotion. — Nuns. — Priestly Authority. 

— Condition of Quebec. — The Hundred Associates. — Church 
DiscipUne. — Plays. — Eireworks. — Processions. — Catechizing. 

— Terrorism. — Pictures. — The Converts. — The Society of 
Jesus. — The Foresters 149 

CHAPTER XIV. 

1636-1652. 

DEVOTEES AND NUNS. 

The Huron Seminary. — Madame de la Peltrie. — Her Pious 
Schemes. — Her Sham Marriage. — She visits the Ursulines of 
Tours. — Marie de Saint Bernard. — Marie de ITncarnation. — 
Her Enthusiasm. — Her Mystical Marriage. — Her Dejection. — 
Her Mental Conflicts. — Her Vision. — Made Superior of the 
UrsuUnes. — The Hotel-Dieu. — The Voyage to Canada. — Sil- 
lery. — Labors and Sufferings of the Nuns. — Character of Marie 
de rincarnation. — Of Madame de la Peltrie ....... 167 

CHAPTER XV. 

1636-1642. 

VILLEMARIE DE MONTREAL. 

Dauversi^re and the Voice from Heaven. — Abb^ OUer. — Their 
Schemes. — The Society of Notre-Dame de Montreal. — Maison- 



CONTENTS. Xiii 

Page 
neuve. — Devout Ladies. — Mademoiselle Mance. — Marguerite 
Bourgeoys. — The Montrealists at Quebec. — Jealousy. — Quar- 
rels. — Romance and Devotion. — Embarkation. — Foundation 
of Montreal 188 

CHAPTER XVI. 
1641-1644. 

ISAAC JOGUES. 

The Iroquois War. — Jogues. — His Capture. — His Journey to the 
Mohawkb — Lake George. — Tlie Mohawk Towns. — The Mis- 
sionary tortured. — Death of Goupil. — Misery of Jogues. — The 
Mohawk "Babylon." — Fort Orange. — Escape of Jogues. — 
Manhattan. — The Voyage to France. — Jogues among his 
Brethren. — He returns to Canada 211 

CHAPTER XVIL 
1641-1646. 

THE lEOQtJOlS. — BRESSANI. — DB KOU£. 

War. — Distress and Terror. — Richelieu. — Battle. — Ruin of In- 
dian Tribes. — Mutual Destruction. — Iroquois and Algonquin. 
— Atrocities. — Frightful Position of the French. — Joseph Bres- 
sani. — His Capture. — His Treatment. — His Escape. — Anne 
de Noue. — His Nocturnal Journey. — His Death 240 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
1642-1644. 

VILLEMARIE. 

Infancy of Montreal. — The Flood. — Vow of Maisonneuve. — Pil- 
grimage. — D'Ailleboust. — The Hotel-Dieu. — Piety. — Propa- 
ga.ndism. — War. — Hurons and Iroquois. — Dogs. — Sally of 
the French. — Battle. — Exploit of Maisonneuve 261 

CHAPTER XIX. 
1644, 1645. 



Irotiuois Prisoners. — Piskaret. — His Exploits. — More Prisoners. 
— Iroquois Embassy. — The Orator. — The Great Council. — 
Speeches of Kiotsaton. — Muster of Savages. — Peace con- 
firmed * . . . 276 

b 



XIV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XX. 

1645, 1646. 

the peace broken. 

Pagb 
Uncertainties. — The Mission of Jogues. — He reaches the Mo- 
hawks. — His Eeception. — His Return. — His Second Mission. 

— Warnings of Danger. — Rage of the Mohawks. — Murder of 
Jogues 29R 

CHAPTER XXI. 

1646, 1647. 

ANOTHER WAR. 

Mohawk Inroads. — The Hunters of Men. — The Captive Conrerts. 

— The Escape of Marie. — Her Story. — The Algonquin Pris- 
oner's Revenge. — Her Flight. — Terror of the Colonists. — 
Jesuit Intrepidity 806 



CHAPTER XXn. 
1645-1651. 

PRIEST AND PURITAN. 

Miscou. — Tadoussac. — Journeys of De Quen. — Druilletes. — His 
Winter with the Montagnais. — Influence of the Missions. — The 
Abenaquis. — Druilletes on the Kennebec. — His Embassy to 
Boston. — Gibbons. — Dudley. — Bradford. — Eliot. — Endicott. 
— Erench and Puritan Colonization. — Failure of Druilletes's 
Embassy. — New Regulations. — New-Year's Day at Quebec . 317 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
1645-1648. 

A DOOMED NATION. 

Indian Infatuation. — Iroquois and Huron. — Huron Triumphs.— 
The Captive Iroquois. — His Ferocity and Fortitude. — Partisan 
Exploits.— Diplomacy. — The Andastes. — The Huron Em- 
bassy. — New Negotiations. — The Iroquois Ambassador. — His 
Suicide.-— Iroquois Honor 336 



CONTENTS. XV 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
1645-1648. 

THE HURON CHURCH. 

PAQB 

Hopes of the Mission. — Christian and Heathen. — Body and Soul. 
— Position of Proselytes. — The Huron Girl's Visit to Heaven. 
— A Crisis. — Huron Justice. — Murder and Atonement. — 
Hop 8 and Fears 349 

CHAPTER XXV. 

1648, 1649. 

SAINTB MAEIB. 

The Centre of the Missions. — Fort. — Convent. — Hospital. ^- Car- 
avansary. — Cliurch. — The Inmates of Sainte Marie. — Domes- 
tic Economy. — Missions. — A Meeting of Jesuits. — Th^ Dead 
Missionary 861 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

1648. 

ANTOINE DAKIEL. 

Huron Traders. — Battle at Three Rivers. — St. Joseph. — Onset ot 
the Iroquois. — Death of Daniel. — The Town destroyed . . . 378 

CHAPTER XXVn. 

1649. 

RUIN OP THE HURONS. 

fcJt. Louis on Fire. — Invasion. — St. Ignace captured. — Brebeuf and 
Lalemant. — Battle at St. Louis. — Sainte Marie threatened. — 
Renewed Fighting. — Desperate Conflict. — A Night of Sus- 
pense. — Panic among the Victors. — Burning of St. Ignace. — 
Retreat of the Iroquois 878 

CHAPTER XXVin. 
1649. 

THE MARTYRS. 

The Ruins of St. Ignace. — The ReUcs found. — Brebeuf at the 
Stake. — His Unconquerable Fortitude. — Lalemant. — Renegade 



Xvi CONTENTS. 

Page 

Hurons. — Iroquois Atrocities. — Death of Breljeuf. — His Char- 
acter. — Death of Lalemant 887 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

1649, 1650. 

THE SANCTUAET. 

Dispersion of the Hurons. — Sainte Marie abandoned. — Isle St. 
Joseph. — Removal of the Mission. — The New Fort. — Misery 
of the Hurons. — Famine. — Epidemic. — Employments of the 
Jesuits 893 



CHAPTER XXX. 
1649. 

GARNIER. — CHABANEL. 

The Tobacco Missions. — St. Jean attacked. — Death of Gamier. — 

The Journey of Chabanel. — His Death. — Garreau and Grelon 403 



CHAPTER XXXL 
1650-1652. 

THE HURON MISSION ABANDONED. 

Famine and the Tomahawk. — A New Asylum. — Voyage of the 
Refugees to Quebec. — Meeting with Bressani. — Desperate 
Courage of the Iroquois. — Inroads and Battles. — Death of 
Buteux 41] 



CHAPTER XXXn. 
1650-1866. 

THE LAST OF THE HDEONS. 

Fate of the Vanquished. — The Refugees of St. Jean Baptiste and 
St. Michel. — The Tobacco Nation and its "Wanderings. — The 
Modern Wyandots. — The Biter Bit. — The Hurons at Quebec. 
— Notre-Dame de Lorette .' . . . 422 



CONTENTS. XYll 

\ 
CHAPTER XXXm. 

1650-1670. 

the destbotebs. 

Paqb 
Iroquois Ambition. — Its Victims. — The Fate of the Neutrals. — 
The Fate of the Eries. — The War with the And&stes. — Su- 
premacy of the IrocLuois *. 434 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 



Failure of the Jesuits. — What their Success wotild have involTcd. 
— Futiure of the Mission 446 



INDEX .... 161 



i* 









-11 Tf -Ji o IT 3 




INTRODUCTION. 



NATIVE TRIBES. 

Divisions. — The Algonquins. — The Hurons. — Their Bottsbs. 
— Fortifications. — Habits. — Arts. — Women. — Trade. — 
Festivities. — Medicine. — The Tobacco Nation. — The Neu- 
trals. — The Fries. — The Andastes. — The Iroquois. — So- 
cial AND Political Organization. — Iroquois Institutions, 
Customs, and Character. — Indian Keligion and Supersti- 
tions. — The Indian Mind. 

America, when it became known to Europeans, was, 
as it had long been, a scene of wide-spread revolution. 
North and South, tribe was giving place to tribe, lan- 
guage to language ; for the Indian, hopelessly unchang- 
ing in respect to individual and social development, was, 
as regarded tribal relations and local haunts, mutable as 
the wind. In Canada and the northern section of the 
United States, the elements of change were especially 
active. The Indian population which, in 1535, Cartier 
found at Montreal and Quebec, had disappeared at the 
opening of the next century, and another race had suc- 
ceeded, in language and customs widely different ; while, 
in the region now forming the State of New York, a 
power was rising to a ferocious vitality, which, but for 
the presence of Europeans, would probably have sub- 
jected, absorbed, or exterminated every other Indian 

[six] 



XX INTEODUCTION. 

community east of the Mississippi and noith of the 
Ohio. 

The vast tract of wilderness from the Mississippi to 
the Atlantic, and from the Carolinas to Hudson's Bay, 
was divided between two great families of tribes, distin- 
guished by a radical difference of language. A part of 
Virginia and of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Southeastern 
New York, New England, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, 
and Lower Canada were occupied, so far as occupied 
at all, by tribes speaking various Algonquin languages 
and dialects. They extended, moreover, along the shores 
of the Upper Lakes, and into the dreary Northern wastes 
beyond. Tliey held Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and 
Indiana, and detached bands ranged the lonely hunting- 
,ground of Kentucky.^ 

Like a great island in the midst of the Algonquins lay 
the country of tribes speaking the generic tongue of the 
Iroquois. The true Iroquois, or Five Nations, extended 
through Central New York, from the Hudson to the 
Genesee. Southward lay the Andastes, on and near the 
Susquehanna; westward, the Eries, along the southern 
shore of Lake Erie, and the Neutral Nation, along its 
northern shore from Niagara towards the Detroit ; while 
the towns of the Huron s lay near the lake to which they 
have left their name.^ 

1 The word Algonquin is here used in its broadest signification. It 
was originally applied to a group of tribes north of the River St. Law- 
rence. The difference of language between the original Algonquins and 
the Abenaquis of New England, the Ojibwas of the Great Lakes, or the 
Illinois of the West, corresponded to the difference between French and 
Italian, or Italian and Spanish. Each of these languages, again, had its 
dialects, like those of different provinces of France. 

2 To the above general statements there was, in the first half of 
the seventeenth century, but onC' exception worth notice. A detached 
branch of the Dahcotah stock, the Winnebago, was established south of 
Green Bay, on Lake Michigan, in the midst of Algonquins ; and small 



NEW-ENGLAND TRIBES. XXI 

Of the Algonquin populations, the densest, despite a 
recent epidemic which had swept them off by thousands, 
was in New England. Here were Mohicans, Pequots, 
Narragansetts, Wampanoags, Massachusetts, Penacooks, 
thorns in the side of the Puritan. On the whole, these 
savages were favorable specimens of the Algonquin stock, 
belonging to that section of it which tilled the soil, and 
was thus in some measure spared the extremes of misery 
and degradation to which the wandering hunter tribes 
were often reduced. They owed much, also, to the 
bounty of the sea, and hence they tended towards the 
coast; which, before the epidemic, Champlain and Smith 
had seen at many points studded with wigwams and 
waving with harvests of maize. Fear, too, drove them 
eastward ; for the Iroquois pursued them with an invet- 
erate enmity. Some paid yearly tribute to their tyrants, 
while others were still subject to their inroads, flying in 
terror at the sound of the Mohawk war-cry. Westward, 
the population thinned rapidly ; northward, it soon dis- 
appeared. Northern New Hampshire, the whole of 
Vermont, and "Western Massachusetts had no human 
tenants but the roving hunter or prowling warrior. 

We have said that this group of tribes was relatively 
very populous ; yet it is more than doubtful whether all 
of them united, had union been possible, could have 
mustered eight thousand fighting men. To speak fur- 
ther of them is needless, for they were not within the 
scope of the Jesuit labors. The heresy of heresies had 
planted itself among them; and it was for the apostle 
Eliot, not the Jesuit, to essay their conversion.^ 

Dahcotah bands had also. planted themselves on the eastern side of the 
Mississippi, nearly in the same latitude. . 

There was another branch of the Iroquois in the Carolinas, consisting 
of the Tuscaroras and kindred bands. In 1715 they were joined to the 
Eive Nations. 

^ These Indians he Arniouchiquois of the old French writers, were 



Xxii INTRODUCTION. 

Landing at Boston, three years before a solitudf, let 
the traveller push northward, pass the River Piscataqua 
and the Penacooks, and cross the River Saco. Here, a 
change of dialect would indicate a different tribe, or 
group of tribes. These were the Abenaquis, found 
chiefly along the course of the Kennebec and other riv- 
ers, on wliose banks they raised their rude harvests, 
and whose streams they ascended to hunt the moose and 
bear in the forest desert of Northern Maine, or descended 
to fish in the neighboring sea.^ 

Crossing the Penobscot, one found a visible descent in 
the scale of humanity. Eastern Maine and the whole 
of New Brunswick were occupied by a race called 
Etchemins, to whom agriculture was unknown, though 
the sea, prolific of fish, lobsters, and seals, greatly 
lightened their miseries. The Souriquois, or Micmacs, 
of Nova Scotia, closely resembled them in habits and 
condition. From Nova Scotia to the St. Lawrence, there 
was no population worthy of the name. From the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario, the southern border 
of the great river had no tenants but hunters. North 
ward, between the St. Lawrence and Hudson's Bay, 
roamed the scattered hordes of the Papinachois, Bcrsi- 

in a state of chronic war with the tribes of New Brunswick and Nova 
Scotia. Cliaiuplain, on his voyage of 1603, heard strange accounts of 
them. The following is literally rendered from the first narrative of that 
heroic, but credulous explorer. 

" They are savages of shape altogether monstrous : for their heads are 
small, their bodies short, and their arms thin as a skeleton, as are also 
their thighs ; but their legs are stout and long, and all of one size, and, 
when they are seated on their heels, their knees rise more than half a 
foot above their heads, which seems a thing strange and against Nature. 
Nevertheless, they are active and bold, and they Iiave the best country on 
all the coast towards Acadia." — Des Sauvages, f. 34. 

This story may match that of the great ci<y of Norembega, on the 
Penobscot, with its population of dwarfs, as related by Jean Alphonse. • 

1 The Tarratines of New-England writers were the Abenaquis, or a 
portion of them 



ALGONQUINS. Xxiu 

amites, and others, included by the French under the 
general name of Montagnais. When, in spring, the 
French trading-ships arrived and anchored in the port 
of Tadoussac, they gathered from far and near, toiling 
painfully through the desolation of forests, mustering by 
hundreds at the point of traffic, and setting up their 
bark wigwams along the strand of that wild harbor. 
They were of the lowest Algonquin type. Their ordi- 
nary sustenance was derived from the chase ; though 
often, goaded by deadly famine, they would subsist on 
roots, the bark and buds of trees, or the foulest oflfal ; 
and in extremity, even cannibalism was not rare among 
them. 

Ascending the St. Lawrence, it was seldom that the 
sight of a human form gave relief to the loneliness, 
until, at Quebec, the roar of Champlain's cannon from 
the verge of the cliff announced that the savage prologue 
of the American drama was drawing to a close, and that 
the civilization of Europe was advancing on the scene. 
Ascending farther, all was solitude, except at Three 
Rivers, a noted place of trade, where a few Algonquins 
of the tribe called Atticamegues might possibly be seen. 
The fear of the Iroquois was everywhere ; and as the 
voyager passed some wooded point, or thicket-covered 
island, the whistling of a stone-headed arrow proclaimed, 
perhaps, the presence of these fierce marauders. At 
Montreal there was no human life, save during a brief 
space in early summer, when the shore swarmed with 
savages, who had come to the yearly trade from the 
great communities of the interior. To-day there were 
dances, songs, and feastings ; to-morrow all again was 
solitude, and the Ottawa was covered with the canoes of 
the returning warriors. 

Along this stream, a main route of traffic, the silence 



Xxiv INTRODUCTION. 

of the wilderness was broken only by the splash of the 
passing paddle. To the north of the river there was 
indeed a small Algonquin band, called La Petite Nation, 
together with one or two other feeble communities ; but 
they dwelt far from the banks, through fear of the 
ubiquitous Iroquois. It was nearly three hundred miles, 
by the windings of the stream, before one reached that 
Algonquin tribe, La Nation de VLsle, who occupied the 
great island of the Allumettes, Then, after many a day 
of lonely travel, the voyager found a savage welcome 
among the Nipissings, on the ISke which bears their 
name ; and then circling west and south for a hundred 
and fifty miles of solitude, he reached for the first time a 
people speaking a dialect of the Iroquois tongue. Here 
all was changed. Populous towns, rude fortifications, 
and an extensive, though barbarous tillage, indicated a 
people far in advance of the famished wanderers of the, 
Saguenay, or their less abject kindred of New England. 
These were the Hurons, of whom the modern Wyandots 
are a remnant. Both in themselves and as a type of 
their generic stock they demand more than a passing 
notice.^ 

THE HURONS. 

More than two centuries have elapsed since the Hu- 
rons vanished from their ancient seats, and the settlers 
of this rude solitude stand perplexed and wondering over 
the relics of a lost people. In the damp shadow of what 

1 The usual confusion of Indian tribal names prevails in the case of 
the Hurons. The following are their synonymes : — 

Hurons (of French origin) ; Ochateguins (Champlain) ; Attigouantans 
(the name of one of their tribes, used by Champlain for the whole 
nation) ; Ouendat (their true name, according to Lalemant) ; Yendat, 
"Wyandot, Guyandot (corruptions of the preceding) ; Ouaouakecinatouek 
(Potier); Quatogies (Colden). 



COUNTRY OF THE HURONS. XXV 

seems a virgin forest, the axe and plougli bring strange 
secrets to light : huge pits, close packed with skeletons 
and disjointed bones, mixed with weapons, copper kettles, 
beads, and trinkets. Not even the straggling Algon- 
quins, who linger about the scene of Huron prosperity-, 
can tell their origin. Yet, on ancient worm-eaten pages, 
between covers of begrimed parchment, the daily life of 
this ruined community, its firesides, its festivals, its fu- 
neral rites, are painted with a minute and vivid fidelity. 

The ancient country of the Hurons is now the north- 
ern and eastern portion of Simcoe County, Canada West, 
and is embraced within the peninsula formed by the 
Nottawassaga and Matchedash Bays of Lake Huron, the 
River Severn, and Lake Simcoe. Its area was small, — 
its population comparatively large. In the year 1639 
the Jesuits made an enumeration of all its villages, dwell- 
ings, and families. The result showed thirty-two vil- 
lages and hamlets, with seven hundred dwellings, about 
four thousand families, and twelve thousand adult per- 
sons, or a total population of at least twenty thousand.^ 

The region whose boundaries we have givgn was an 
alternation of meadows and deep forests, interlaced with 

1 Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1640, 38 (Cramoisy). His words 
are, "de feux enuiron deux mille, et enuiron douze mille personnes." 
There were two families to every fire. Tliat by "personnes" adults 
only are meant cannot be doubted, as the Relations abound in incidental 
evidence of a total population far exceeding twelve thousand. A Huron 
family usually numbered from five to eight persons. The number of the 
Huron towns changed from year to year. Champlain and Le Caron, in 
1615, reckoned them at seventeen or eighteen, with a population of about 
ten thousand, meaning, no doubt, adults. Bre'beuf, in 1635, found twenty 
villages, and, as he thinks, thirty thousand souls. Both Le Mercier and 
De Quen, as well as Dollier de Casson and the anonymous author of the 
Relation of 1660, state the population at from thirty to thirty-five thousand. 
Since the time of Champlain's visit, various kindred tribes or fragments 
of tribes had been incorporated with the Hurons, thus more than balaa- 
cing the ravages of a pestilence which had decimated them. 

c 



XXVi INTRODUCTION. 

footpaths leading from town to town. Of these towns, 
some were fortifiad, but the greater number were open 
and defenceless. They were of a construction common 
to all tribes of Iroquois lineage, and peculiar to them. 
Nothing similar exists at the present day.^ They covered 
a space of from one to ten acres, the dwellings clustering 
together with little or no pretension to order. In gen- 
eral, these singular structures were about thirty or thirty- 
five feet in length, breadth, and height ; but many were 
much larger, and a few were of prodigious length. In 
some of the villages there were dwellings two hundred 
and forty feet long, though in breadth and height they 
did not much exceed the others.^ In shape they were 
much like an arbor overarching a garden-walk. Their 
frame was of tall and strong saplings, planted in a double 
row to form the two sides of the house, bent till they met, 
and lashed together at the top. To these other poles 
were bound transversely, and the whole was covered 
with large sheets of the bark of the oak, elm, spruce, or 
white cedar, overlapping like the shingles of a roof, upon 
which, for their better security, split poles were made fast 
with cords of linden bark. At the crown of the arch, 
along the entire length of the house, an opening a foot 
wide was left for the admission of light and the escape 
of smoke. At each end was a close porch of similar 

^ The permanent bark villages of the Dahcotah of the St. Peter's are 
the nearest modern approach to the Huron towns. The whole Huron 
country abounds with evidences of having been occupied by a numerous 
population. " On a close infection of the forest," Dr. Taciie writes to 
me, " the greatest part of it seems to have been cleared at former periods, 
and almost the only places bearing the character of the primitive forest 
are the low grounds." 

2 Bre'beuf, Relation des Hurons, 1635, 31. Champlain says that he saw 
them, in 1615, more than thirty fathoms long; while Vanderdonck re- 
ports the length, from actual measurement, of an Iroquois house, at a 
hundred and eighty yards, or five hundred and forty feet ! 



HURON DWELLINGS. XXvii 

construction ; and here were stowed casks of bark, filled 
with smoked fish, Indian corn, and other stores not liable 
to injury from frost. Within, on both sides, were wide 
scaifolds, four feet from the floor, and extending the 
entire length of the house, like the seats of a colossal 
omnibus.^ These were formed of thick sheets of bark, 
supported by posts and transverse poles, and covered 
with mats and skins. Here, in summer, was the sleep- 
ing-place of the inmates, and the space beneath served 
for storage of their firewood. The fires were on the 
ground, in a line down the middle of the house. Each 
sufficed for two families, who, in winter, slept closely 
packed around them. Above, just under the vaulted 
roof, were a great number of poles, like the perches of a 
hen-roost, and here were suspended weapons, clothing, 
skins, and ornaments. Here, too, in harvest time, the 
squaws hung the ears of unshelled corn, till the rude 
abode, through all its length, seemed decked with a 
golden tapestry. In general, however, its only lining 
was a thick coating of soot from the smoke of fires with 
neither draught, chimney, nor window. So pungent was 
the smoke, that it produced inflammation of the eyes, 
attended in old age with frequent blindness. Another 
annoyance was the fleas ; and a third, the unbridled and 
unruly children. Privacy there was none. The house 
was one chamber, sometimes lodging more than twenty 
families.^ 

1 Often, especially among the Iroquois, the internal arrangement was 
different. Tlie scaffolds or platforms were raised only a foot from the 
eartiien floor, and were only twelve or thirteen feet long, with interven- 
ing spaces, where the occupants stored their family provisions and other 
articles. Five or six feet above was another platform, often occupied by 
children. One pair of platforms sufficed for a family, and here during 
summer they slept pellmell, in the clothes they wore by day, and without 
pillows. 

2 One of the best descriptions of the Huron and Iroquois houses is 



XXViii INTRODUCTION. 

He who entered on a winter night beheld a strange 
spectacle : the vista of fires lighting the smoky concave ; 
the bronzed groups encircling each, — cooking, eating, 
gambling, or amusing themselves with idle badinage ; 
slirivelled squaws, hideous with threescore years of 
liardship ; grisly old warriors, scarred with Iroquois 
war-clubs ; young aspirants, whose honors were yet to 
be won ; damsels gay with ochre and wampum ; restless 
children pellmell with restless dogs. Now a tongue of 
resinous flame painted each wild feature in vivid light; 
now the fitful gleam expired, and the group vanished 
from sight, as their nation has vanished from history. 

The fortified towns of the Hurons were all on the side 

that of Sagard, Voyage des Hurons, 118. See also Champlain (1627), 78; 
Bre'beut', Relalion des Hurons, 1635, 31 ; Vanderdonck, New Netherhinds, 
in N. Y. Hist. Coll., Second Ser., 1. 196 ; Lafitau, Meeurs des Sauvar/es, II. 10. 
The account given by Cartier of the houses he saw at Montreal corre- 
sponds with the above. He describes them as about fifty yards long 
In this case, there were partial partitions for the several families, and a 
sort of loft above. Many of the Iroquois and Huron houses were of 
eimilar construction, the partitions being at the sides only, leaving a wide 
passage down the middle of the house. Bartram, Observations on a Journey 
from Pennsylvania to Canada, gives a description and plan of the Iroquois 
Council-House in 1751, which was of this construction. Indeed, the Iro- 
quois preserved this mode of building, in all essential points, down to a 
recent period. They usually framed the sides of their houses on rows of 
upright posts, arched with separate poles for the roof The Hurons, no 
doubt, did the same in their larger structures. For a door, there was a 
sheet of bark hung on wooden hinges, or suspended by cords from above. 

On the site of Huron towns which were destroyed by fire, the size, 
shape, and arrangement of tlie houses can still, in some instances, be 
traced by remains in the form of charcoal, as well as by the charred 
bones and fragments of pottery found among the ashes. 

Dr. Tache, after a zealous and minute examination of the Huron 
country, extended through five years, writes to me as follows. " From 
the remains I have found, I can vouch for the scrupulous correctness of 
our ancient writers. With the aid of their indications and descriptions, 
I have been able to detect the sites of villages in the midst of the forest, 
and by the study, in situ, of archaeological monuments, small as they are, 
to understand and confirm their many interesting details of the habits, 
and especially the funeral rites, of these extraordinary tribes." 



HURON FORTIFICATIONS. xxix 

exposed to Iroquois incursions. The fortifications of all 
this family of tribes were, like their dwellings, in essen 
tial points alike. A situation was chosen favorable to 
defence, — the bank of a lake, the crown of a difficult 
hill, or a high point of land in the fork of confluent 
rivers. A ditch, several feet deep, was dug around tlie 
village, and the earth thrown up on the inside. Trees 
were then felled by an alternate process of burning and 
hacking the burnt part with stone hatchets, and by 
similar means were cut into lengths to form palisades. 
These were planted on the embankment, in one, two, 
three, or four concentric rows, — those of each row in- 
clining towards those of the other rows until they inter- 
sected. The whole was lined within, to the height of a 
man, with heavy sheets of bark ; and at the top, where 
the palisades crossed, was a gallery of timber for the 
defenders, together with wooden gutters, by which 
streams of water could be poured down on fires kindled 
by the enemy. Magazines of stones, and rude ladders 
for mounting the rampart, completed the provision for 
defence. The forts of the Iroquois were stronger and 
more elaborate than those of the Hurons ; and to this day 
large districts in New York are marked with frequent 
remains of their ditches and embankments.^ 

Among these tribes there was no individual ownership 
of land, but each family had for the time exclusive right 

1 There is no mathematical regularity in these works. In their form, 
the builders were guided merely by the nature of the ground. Frequently 
a precipice or river sufficed for partial defence, and the line of embank- 
ment occurs only on one or two sides. In one instance, distinct traces of 
a double line of palisades are visible along the embankment. (See Squier, 
Aboriginal Monuments of New York, 38.) It is probable that the palisade 
was planted first, and the earth heaped around it. Indeed, this is stated 
by the Tuscarora Indian, Cusick, in his curious History of the Six Na- 
tions (Iroquois). Brebeuf says, that as early as 1636 the Jesuits taught 
t)ie Hurons to build rectangular palisaded works, with bastions. The Iro- 

c* 



XXX INTRODUCTION. 

to as much as it saw fit to cultivate. The clearing pro- 
cess — a most toilsome one — consisted in hacking off 
branches, piling them together with brushwood around 
the foot of the standing trunks, and setting fire to tho 
whole. The squaws, working with their hoes of wood 
and bone among the cliarred stumps, sowed their corn, 
beans, pumpkins, tobacco, sunflowers, and Huron hemp. 
No manure was used ; but, at intervals of from ten to 
thirty years, when tlie soil was exhausted, and firewood 
distant, the village was abandoned and a new one built. 

There was little game in the Huron country ; and 
here, as among the Iroquois, the staple of food was 
Indian corn, cooked without salt in a variety of forms, 
each more odious than the last. Venison was a luxury 
found only at feasts ; dog-flesh was in high esteem ; and, 
in some of the towns captive bears were fattened for 
festive occasions. These tribes were far less improvident 
than the roving Algonquins, and stores of provision were 
laid up against a season of want. Tbeir main stock of 
corn was buried in caches, or deep holes in the earth, 
either within or without the houses. 

1)1 respect to the arts of life, all these stationary tribes 
were in advance of the wandering hunters of the North. 
The women made a species of earthen pot for cooking, 
but these were supplanted by the copper kettles of the 
French traders. They wove rush mats with no little 

quois adopted the same practice at an early period, omitting the ditch and 
embankment; and it is probable, that, even in their primitive defences, 
the. palisades, where the ground was of a nature to yield easily to their 
rude implements, were planted simply in holes dug for the purpose. Such 
seems to have been the Iroquois fortress attacked by Champlain in 1615. 

The Muscogees, with other Southern tribes, and occasionally the 
Algonquins, had palisaded towns ; but the palisades were usually but a 
single row, planted upright. The tribes of Virginia occasionally sur- 
rounded their dwellings with a triple palisade. — Beverly, Historij of 
Virginia, 149. 



WAMPUM. XXxi 

skill. They spun twine from hemp, by the primitive 
process of rolling it on their thighs; and of this twine 
they made nets. They extracted oil from fish and from 
the seeds of the sunflower, — the latter, apparently, only 
for the purposes of the toilet. They pounded their maize 
in huge mortars of wood, hollowed by alternate burnings 
and scrapings. Their stone axes, spear and arrow heads, 
and bone fish-hooks, were fast giving place to the iron of 
the French; but they had not laid aside their shields 
of raw bison-hide, or of wood overlaid with plaited and 
twisted thongs of skin. They still used, too, their primi- 
tive breastplates and greaves of twigs interwoven with 
cordage.^ The masterpiece of Huron handiwork, how- 
ever, was the birch canoe, in the construction of which 
the Algonquins were no less skilful. The Iroquois, in 
the absence of the birch, were forced to use the bark of 
the elm, which was greatly inferior both in lightness and 
strength. Of pipes, than which nothing was more im- 
portant in their eyes, tlie Hurons made a great variety, 
some of baked clay, others of various kinds of stone, 
carved by the men, during their long periods of monoto- 
nous leisure, often with great skill and ingenuity. But 
their most mysterious fabric was wampum. This was 
at once their currency, their ornament, their pen, ink, 
and parchment ; and its use was by no means confined 
to tribes of the Iroquois stock. It consisted of elongated 
beads, white and purple, made from the inner part of 
certain shells. It is not easy to conceive how, with their 
rude implements, the Indians contrived to shape and 
perforate this intractable material. The art soon fell 
into disuse, however ; for wampum better than their own 

1 Some of the northern tribes of California, at the present day, wear 
a sort of breastplate " composed of thin parallel battens of very tough 
wood, woven together with a small cord." 



XXXll INTRODUCTION. 

was brought them by the traders, besides abundant imi. 
tations in glass and porcelain. Strung into necklaces, on 
wrought into collars, belts, and bracelets, it was the 
favorite decoration of the Indian girls at festivals and 
dances. It served also a graver purpose. No compact, 
no speech, or clause of a speech, to the representative of 
another nation, had any force, unless confirmed by the 
delivery of a string or belt of wampum.^ The belts, on 
occasions of importance, were wrought into significant 
devices, suggestive of the substance of the compact or 
speech, and designed as aids to memory. To one or 
more old men of the nation was assigned the honorable, 
but very onerous, charge of keepers of the wampum, — in 
other words, of the national records ; and it was for them 
to remember and interpret the meaning of the belts. 
The figures on wampum-belts were, for the most part, 
simply mnemonic. So also were those carved on wooden 
tablets, or painted on bark and skin, to preserve in mem- 
ory the songs of war, hunting, or magic.^ The Hurons 
had, however, in common with other tribes, a system of 
rude pictures and arbitrary signs, by which they could 
convey to each other, with tolerable precision, informa- 
tion touching the ordinary subjects of Indian interest. 

Their dress was chiefly of skins, cured with smoke 
after the well-known Indian mode. That of the women, 
according to the Jesuits, was more modest than that " of 
our most pious ladies of France." The young girls o < 
festal occasions must be excepted from this commenda- 
tion, as they wore merely a kilt from the waist to the 

1 Beaver-skins and other valuable furs were sometimes, on such occa- 
Bions, used as a substitute. 

2 Engravings of many specimens of these figured songs are given in 
<ne voluminous reports on the condition of the Indians, published by Gov 
ernment, under the editorship of Mr. Schoolcraft. The specimens are 
chiefly Algonquin. 



HUBON WOMEN. XXxiii 

knee, besides the "wampum decorations of the breast and 
arms. Their long black hair, gathered behind the neck, 
was decorated with disks of native copper, or gay jien- 
dants made in France, and now occasionally unearthed 
in numbers from their graves. The men, in summer, 
were iiearly naked, — those of a kindred tribe wholly so, 
with the sole exception of their moccasins. In winter 
they were clad in tunics and leggins of skin, and at 
all seasons, on occasions of ceremony, were wrapped 
frojn head to foot in robes of beaver or otter furs, some- 
times of the greatest value. On the inner side, these 
robes were decorated with painted figures and devices, or 
embroidered with the dyed quills of the Canada hedge- 
hog. In this art of embroidery, however, the Hurons 
were equalled or surpassed by some of the Algonquin 
tribes. They wore their hair after a variety of grotesque 
and startling fashions. With some, it was loose on one 
?ide, and tight braided on the other ; with others, close 
shaved, leaving one or more long and cherished locks ; 
while, with others again, it bristled in a ridge across the 
crown, like the back of a hyena.^ When in full dress, 
they were painted with ochre, white clay, soot, and the 
red juice of certain berries. They practised tattooing, 
sometimes covering the whole body with indelible de- 
vices.''^ When of such extent, the process was very 
severe ; and though no murmur escaped the sufferer, he 
sometimes died from its effects. 

Female life among the Hurons had no bright side. It 
was a youth of license, an age of drudgery. Despite an 
organization which, while it perhaps made them less sen- 

1 See Le Jeune, Relation, 1633, 35. — " Quelles hures ! " exclaimed 
some astonished Prenchman. Hence tlie name, Hurons. 

2 Bressani, Relation Abr€gee, 72. — Champlain has a picture of a war- 
rior thus tattooed. 



XXXIV INTRODUCTION. 

sible of pain, certainly made them less susceptible of 
passion, than the higher races of men, the Hurons were 
notoriously dissolute, far exceeding in this respect the 
wandering and starving Algonqnins.^ Marriage existed 
among them, and polygamy was exceptional ; but divorce 
took place at the will or caprice of either party. A 
practice also prevailed of temporary or experimental 
marriage, lasting a day, a week, or more. The seal of 
the compact was merely the acceptance of a gift of wam- 
pum made by the suitor to the object of his desire or his 
whim. These gifts were never returned on the dissolution 
of the connection ; and as an attractive and enterprising 
damsel might, and often did, make twenty such marriages 
before her final establishment, she thus collected a wealth 

1 Among the Iroquois there were more favorable features in tlie con- 
dition of women. Tlie matrons liad often a considerable influence on the 
decisions of the councils. Lafitau, whose book appeared in 1724, says 
that the nation was corrupt in his time, but that this was a degeneracy 
from their ancient manners. La Potherie and Charlevoix make a similar 
statement. Megapolensis, however, in 1644, says that they were then 
exceedhigly debauclied ; and Greenhalgh, in 1677, gives ample evidence 
of a shameless license. One of their most earnest advocates of the 
present day admits that the passion of love among them had no other 
than an animal existence. (Morgan, League of the Iroquois, 322.) There is 
clear proof that the tribes of the South were equally, corrupt. (See 
Lawson, Carolina, 84, and other eai'ly writers.) On the other hand, 
chastity in women was recognized as a virtue by many tribes. This was 
peculiarly the case among the Algonquins of Gaspe, where a lapse in 
this regard was counted a disgrace. (See Le Clerc, Nouvelle Relation de 
la Gasj)e'sie, 417, where a contrast is drawn between the modesty cf 
the girls of this region and the open prostitution practised among those 
of other tribes.) Among the Sioux, adultery on the part of a woman is 
punished by mutilation. 

The remarkable forbearance observed by Eastern and Northern tribes 
towards female captives was probably the result of a superstition. Not- 
withstanding the prevailing license, the Iroquois and other tribes had 
among themselves certain conventional rules which excited the admira- 
tion of the Jesuit celibates. Some of these had a superstitious origin; 
others were in accordance with the iron requirements of their savage 
etiquette. To make the Indian a hero of romance is mere nonsense. 



HURON WOMEN. XXXV 

of wampum with which to adorn herself for the village 
dances.^ This provisional matrimony was no bar to a 
license boundless and apparently universal, unattended 
with loss of reputation on either side. Every instinct 
of native delicacy quickly vanished under the influence 
of Huron domestic life ; eight or ten families, and often 
more, crowded into one undivided house, where privacy 
was impossible, and where strangers were free to enter 
at all hours of the day or night. 

Once a mother, and married with a reasonable per- 
manency, the Huron woman from a wanton became a 
drudge. In March and April she gathered the year's 
supply of firewood. Then came sowing, tilling, and 
harvesting, smoking fish, dressing skins, making cordage 
and clothing, preparing food. On the march it was she 
who bore the burden ; for, in the words of Champlain, 
" their women were their mules." The natural effect 
followed. In every Huron town were shrivelled hags, 
hideous and despised, who, in vindictiveness, ferocity, 
and cruelty, far exceeded the men. 

To the men fell the task of building the houses, and 
making weapons, pipes, and canoes. For the rest, their 
home-life was a life of leisure and amusement. The 
summer and autumn were their seasons of serious em- 



1 " II s'en trouue telle qui passe ainsi sa ieunesse, qui aura eu plus de 
vingt maris, lesquels A'ingt maris ne sont pas seuls en la jouyssance de la 
beste, quelques mariez qu'ils soient : car la nuict venue, les ieunes femmes 
courent d'une cabane en une autre, come font les ieunes hommes de leur 
coste, qui en prennent par ou bon leur semble, toutesfois sans violence 
aucune, et n'en re9oiuent aucune infamie, ny injure, la coustume du pays 
estant telle." — Champlain (1627), 90. Compare Sagard, Voyage des 
Hurons, 176. Both were personal observers. 

The ceremony, even of the most serious marriage, consisted merely 
in the bride's bringing a dish of .boiled maize to the bridegroom, together 
with an armful of fuel. There was often a feast of the relatives, or of 
the whole village. 



XXXvi INTRODUCTION. 

ployniciit, — of war, hunting, fishing, and trade. Thero 
was an established system of traffic between the Hurons 
and the Algonquins of the Ottawa and Lake Nipissing : 
the Hurons exchanging wampum, fishing-nets, and corn 
for fish and furs.^ From various reUcs found in their 
graves, it may be inferred that they also traded with 
tribes of the Upper Lakes, as well as with tribes far 
southward, towards the Gulf of Mexico. Each branch of 
traffic was the monopoly of the family or clan by whom 
it was opened. They might, if they could, punish inter- 
lopers, by stripping them of all they possessed, unless the 
latter had succeeded in reaching home w4th the fruits 
of their trade, — in which case the outraged monopolists 
had no further right of redress, and could not attempt 
it without a breaking of the public peace, and exposure 
to the authorized vengeance of the other party .^ Their 
fisheries, too, were regulated by customs having the 
force of laws. These pursuits, with their hunting, — in 
which they were aided by a wolfish breed of dogs unable 
to bark, — consumed the autumn and early winter; but 
before the new year the greater part of the men were 
gathered in their villages. 

Now followed their festal season ; for it was the season 
of idleness for the men, and of leisure for the women. 
Feasts, gambling, smoking, and dancing filled the vacant 
hours. Like other Indians, the Hurons were desperate 
gamblers, staking their all, — ornaments, clothing, canoes, 
pipes, weapons, and wives. One of their principal games 
was played with plum-stones, or wooden lozenges, black 
on one side and white on the other. These were tossed 
up in a wooden bowl, by striking it sharply upon the 
ground, and the players betted on the black or white. 

1 Champlain (1G27), 84. 

2 Brebeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1636, 156 (Cramoisy). 



HUPtON FESTIVITIES. XXXVll 

Sometimes a village challenged a neigliboiing village. 
The game was played in one of the houses. Strong 
poles were extended from side to side, and on these sat 
or perched the company, party facing party, while two 
players struck the bowl on the ground between. Bets 
ran high ; and Brebeuf relates, that once, in midwinter, 
with the snow nearly three feet deep, the men of his vil- 
lage returned from a gambling visit, bereft of their leg- 
gins, and barefoot, yet in excellent humor.^ Ludicrous 
as it may appear, these games were often medical pre- 
scriptions, and designed as a cure of the sick. 

Their feasts and dances were of various character, 
social, medical, and mystical or religious. Some of 
their feasts were on a scale of extravagant profusion. 
A vain or ambitious host threw all his substance into one 
entertainment, inviting the whole village, and perhaps 
several neighboring villages also. In the winter of 1635 
there was a feast at the village of Oontarrea, where 
thirty kettles were on the fires, and twenty deer and 
four bears were served up.^ The invitation was simple. 
The messenger addressed the desired guest with the con- 
cise summons, " Come and eat"; and to refuse was a 
grave offence. He took his dish and spoon, and repaired 
to the scene of festivity. Each, as he entered, greeted 
his host with the guttural ejaculation, Ro I and ranged 
himself with the rest, squatted on the earthen floor or on 
the platform along the sides of the house. The kettles 
were slung over the fires in the midst. First, there was 
a long prelude of lugubrious singing. Then the host, who 

^ Brebeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1636, 113. — This game is still a favor- 
ite among the Iroquois, some of whom hold to the belief that they will 
play it after death in the realms of bliss. In all their important games 
of chance, they employed charms, incantations, and all the resources of 
their magical art, to gain good luck. 

■' Brebeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1636, 111. 

d 



XXXViii INTRODUCTION. 

took no share in tlie feast, proclaimed in a loud voice the 
contents of each kettle in turn, and at each announce- 
ment the company responded in unison, So! The at- 
tendant squaws filled with their ladles the bowls of all 
the guests. There was talking, laughing, jesting, sing- 
ing, and smoking ; and at times the entertainment was 
protracted through the day. 

When the feast had a medical or mystic character, it 
was indispensable that each guest should devour the 
whole of the portion given him, however enormous. 
Should he fail, the host would be outraged, the com- 
munity shocked, and the spirits roused to vengeance. 
Disaster would befall the nation, — death, perhaps, the 
individual. In some cases, the imagined efficacy of the 
feast was proportioned to the rapidity with which the 
viands were despatched. Prizes of tobacco were offered 
to the most rapid feeder ; and the spectacle then became 
truly porcine.^ These festins d manger tout were much 
dreaded by many of the Hurons, who, however, were 
never known to decline them. 

Invitation to a dance was no less concise than to a 
feast. Sometimes a crier proclaimed the approaching 
festivity through the village. The house was crowded. 
Old men, old women, and children thronged the plat- 
forms, or clung to the poles which supported tlie sides 
and roof. Fires were raked out, and the earthen floor 
cleared. Two chiefs sang at the top of their voices, 
keeping time to their song with tortoise-shell rattles.^ 

1 This superstition was not confined to the Hurons, but extended to 
many other tribes, including, probably, all the Algonquins, with some of 
which it holds in full force to this day. A feaster, unable to do his full 
part, might, if he could, hire another to aid him ; otherwise, he must 
remain in his place till the work was done. 

2 Sagard gives specimens of their songs. In both dances and feasts 
there was no little variety. These were sometimes combined. It is im- 



HURON CANNIBALISM. XXXIX 

The men danced with great violence and gesticulation ; 
the women, with a much more measured action. The 
former were nearly divested of clothing, — in mystical 
dances, sometimes wholly so ; and, from a superstitious 
motive, this was now and then the case with the women. 
Both, however, were abundantly decorated with paint, 
oil, beads, wampum, trinkets, and feathers. 

Religious festivals, councils, the entertainment of an 
envoy, the inauguration of a chief, were all occasions of 
festivity, in which social pleasure was joined with mat- 
ter of grave import,- and which at times gathered nearly 
all the nation into one great and harmonious concourse. 
Warlike expeditions, too, were always preceded by feast- 
ing, at which the warriors vaunted the fame of their an- 
cestors, and their own past and prospective exploits. A 
hideous scene of feasting followed the torture of a pris- 
oner. Like tlie torture itself, it was, among the Hurons, 
partly an act of vengeance, and partly a religious rite. 
If the victim had shown courage, the heart was first 
roasted, cut into small pieces, and given to the young 
men and boys, who _ devoured it to increase their own 
courage. The body was then divided, thrown into the 
kettles, and eaten by the assembly, the head being the 
portion of the chief. Many of the Hurons joined in 
the feast with reluctance and horror, while others took 
pleasure in it.^ This was the only form of cannibal- 
possible, in brief space, to indicate more than their general features. In 
the famous "war-dance," — wliicli was frequently danced, as it still is, 
for amusement, — speeches, exhortations, jests, personal satire, and rep- 
artee were commonly introduced as a part of the performance, some- 
times by way of patriotic stimulus, sometimes for amusement. Tlie 
music in this case was the drum and the war-song. Some of the other 
dances were also interspersed with speeches and sharp witticisms, always 
taken in good part, though Lafitau says that he has seen the victim so 
pitilessly bantered that he was forced to hide his head in his blanket. 

i "U y en a qui en mangent auec plaisir." — Bvebenf, Relation des 



Xl INTRODUCTION. 

ism among them, sihce, unlike the wandering Algon- 
quins, they were rarely under the desperation of extreme 
famine. 

A great knowledge of simples for the cure of disease 
is popularly ascribed to the Indian. Here, however, as 
elsewhere, his knowledge is in fact scanty. He rarely 
reasons from cause to effect, or from effect to cause 
Disease, in his belief, is the result of sorcery, the agency 
of spirits or supernatural influences, undefined and inde- 
finable. The Indian doctor was a conjurer, and his reme- 
dies were to the last degree preposterous, ridiculous, or 
revolting. The well-known Indian sweating-bath is the 
most prominent of the few means of cure based on agen- 
cies simply physical ; and this, with all the other natural 
remedies, was applied, not by the professed doctor, but 
by the sufferer himself, or his friends.^ 

The Indian doctor beat, shook, and pinched his patient, 
liowled, whooped, rattled a tortoise-shell at his ear to ex- 
pel the evil spirit, bit him till blood flowed, and then 
displayed in triumph a small piece of wood, bone, or iron, 
which he had hidden in his mouth, and which he affirmed 

Hurons, 1636, 121. — Le Mercier gives a description of one of these scenes, 
at wliich lie was present. (Ibid., 1637, 118.) The same horrible practice- 
prevailed to a greater extent among the Iroquois. One of the most re- 
markable instances of Indian cannibalism is that furnished by a Western 
tribe, the Miamis, among whom there was a clan, or family, whose heredi- 
tary duty and privilege it was to devour the bodies of prisoners burned 
to death. The act had somewhat of a religious character, was attended 
with ceremonial observances, and was restricted to the family in question. 
— See Hon. Lewis Cass, in the appendix to Colonel Whiting's poem, 
" Ontwa." 

1 The Indians had many simple applications for wounds, said to have 
been very efficacious ; but the purity of their blood, owing to the absence 
from their diet of condiments and stimulants, as well as to their active 
habits, aided the remedy. In general, they were remarkably exempt 
from disease or deformity, though often seriously injured by alternations 
of himger and excess. The Hurons sometimes died from the effects of 
their _/esiins a manger tout. 



HURON JIEDICINE. xli 

WAS the source of the disease, now happily removed. ^ 
Sometimes he prescribed a dance, feast, or game ; and the 
whole village bestirred themselves to fulfil the injunction 
to the letter. They gambled away their all ; they gorged 
themselves like vultures ; they danced or played ball 
naked among the snow-drifts from morning till night. 
At a medical feast, some strange or unusual act was com- 
monly enjoined as vital to the patient's cure : as, for 
example, the departing guest, in place of the customary 
monosyllable of thanks, was requii'ed to greet his host 
with an ugly grimace. Sometimes, by prescription, half 
the village would throng into the house where the pa- 
tient lay, led by old women disguised with the heads and 
skins of bears, and beating with sticks on sheets of dry 
bark. Here the assembly danced and whooped for hours 
together, with a din to which a civilized patient would 
promptly have succumbed. Sometimes the doctor wrought 
himself into a prophetic fury, raving through the length 
and breadth of the dwelling, snatching firebrands and 
flinging them about him, to the terror of the squaws, 
with whom, in their combustible tenements, fire was a 
constant bugbear. 

Among the Hurons and kindred tribes, disease was 
frequently ascribed to some hidden wish ungratified. 
Hence the patient was overwhelmed with gifts, in the 
hope, that, in their multiplicity, the desideratum might 
be supplied. Kettles, skins, awls, pipes, wampum, fish- 
hooks, weapons, objects of every conceivable variety, were 

1 The Hurons believed that the chief cause of disease and death was 
a monstrous serpent, that lived under the earth. By touching a tuft of 
hair, a feather, or a fragment of bone, with a portion of his flesh or fat, 
the sorcerer imparted power to it of entering tlae body of his A'ictim, and 
gradually killing him. It was an important part of the doctor's function 
to extract these charms from the vitals of his patient. — Ragueneau, Rela- 
tion des Hurons, 1648, 75. 

d* 



Xlii INTRODUCTION. 

piled before him by a host of charitable con Iributors ; 
and if, as often happened, a dream, the Indian oracle, 
had revealed to the sick man the secret of his cure, his 
demands were never refused, however extravagant, idle, 
nauseous, or abominable. ^ Hence it is no matter of 
wonder that sudden illness and sudden cures were fre- 
quent among the Hurons. The patient reaped profit, and 
the doctor both profit and honor. 

THE HURON-IROQUOIS FAMILY. 

And now, before entering upon the very curious sub- 
ject of Indian social and tribal organization, it may be 
well briefly to observe the position and prominent distinc- 
tive features of the various communities speaking dialects 
of the generic tongue of the Iroquois. In this remarka- 

1 " Dans le pays de nos Hurons, il se faict aussi des assemblces de 
toutes les fiUes d'vn bourg aupres d'vne malade, tant k sa priere, suyuant 
la resuerie ou le songe qu'elle en aui-a eue, que par I'ordonnance de Loki 
{the doctor), pour sa sante et guerison. Les filles ainsi assemblees, on leur 
demande a toutes, les vnes ajjres les autres, celuy qu'elles veulent des 
ieunes homnies du bourg pour dormir auec elles la nuict prochaine : elles 
en nomment chacune vn, qui sont aussi-tost adiiertis par les IMaistres de la 
ceremonie, lesquels vlennent tous au soir en la presence de la malade 
dormir chacun auec celle qui I'a choysi, d'vn bout a I'autre de la Cabane, 
et passent ainsi toute la nuict, pendant que deux Capitaines aux deux 
bouts du logis chantent et sonnent de leur Tortue du soir au lendemain 
matin, que la ceremonie cesse. Dieu vueille abolir vne si damnable et 
malheureuse ceremonie." — Sagard, Voi/age des Hurons, 158. — This unique 
mode of cure, which was called Andacwandet, is also described by Lale- 
mant, who savA' it. {Relation des Hurons, 1639, 84.) It was one of the 
recognized remedies. 

For the medical practices of the Hurons, see also Champlain, BreTjeuf, 
Lafitau, Charlevoix, and other early writers. Those of the Algonquins 
were in some points different. The doctor often consulted the spirits, to 
learn the cause and cure of the disease, by a method peculiar to that 
family of tribes. He shut himself in a small conical lodge, and the spirits 
here visited liim, manifesting their presence by a violent shaking of the 
whole structure. This superstition will be described in another connec- 
tion 



THE TOBACCO NATION. xliii 

ble family of tribes occur the fullest developments of 
Indian character, and the most conspicuous examples 
of Indian intelligence. If the higher traits popularly 
ascribed to the race are not to be found here, they 
are to be found nowhere. A palpable proof of the 
superiority of this stock is afforded in the size of the 
Iroquois and Huron brains. In average internal ca- 
pacity of the cranium, they surpass, witli few and doubt- 
ful exceptions, all other aborigines of North and South 
America, not excepting the civilized races of Mexico and 
Peru.^ 

In the woody valleys of the Blue Mountains, south of 
the Nottawassaga Bay of Lake Huron, and two days' 
journey west of the frontier Huron towns, lay the nine 
villages of the Tobacco Nation, or Tionnontates. ^ In 
manners, as in language, they closely resembled the 
Hurons. Of old they were their enemies, but were now 
at peace with them, and about the year 1640 became their 
close confederates. Indeed, in the ruin which befell that 
hapless people, the Tionnontates alone retained a tribal 
organization ; and their descendants, with a trifling ex- 
ception, are to this day the sole inheritors of the Huron 
or Wyandot name. Expatriated and wandering, they 
held for generations a paramount influence among the 

1 " On comparing five Iroquois heads, I find that they give an aver- 
age internal capacity of eighty-eight cubic inches, which is within two 
inches of the Caucasian mean." — Morton, Crania Americana, 195. — It is 
remarliable that the internal capacity of the skulls of the barbarous Amer- 
ican tribes is greater than that of either tlie Mexicans or the Peruvians. 
" The difference in volume is chiefly confined to the occipital and basal 
portions," — in other words, to tlie region of the animal propensities; and 
hence, it is argued, the ferocious, brutal, and uncivilizable character of tlie 
wild tribes. — See J. S. Phillips, Admeasurements of Crania of the Principal 
Groups of Indians in the United States. 

2 Synoni/mes: Tionnontates, Etionontates, Tuinontatek, Dionondadies, 
Khionontaterrhonons, Petuneux or Nation du Petun (Tobacco). 



Xliv INTRODUCTION. 

"Westoni tribes.^ In their original seats among the Blue 
Mountains, tliey offered an example extremely rare 
among Indians, of a tribe raising a crop for the market ; 
for they traded in tobacco largely with other tribes. 
Their Huron confederates, keen traders, would not suf- 
fer them to pass through their country to traffic with 
the French, preferring to secure for themselves the ad- 
vantage of bartering with, them in French goods at an 
enormous profit.^ 

Journeying southward five days from the Tionnontate 
towns, tlie forest traveller reached the border villages 
of the Attiwandarons, or Neutral Nation.^ As early as 
1626, they were visited by the Franciscan friar. La Roche 
Dallion, who reports a numerous population in twenty- 
eight towns, besides many small hamlets. Their country, 
about forty leagues in extent, embraced wide and fertile 
districts on the north shore of Lake Erie, and their fron- 
tier extended eastward across the Niagara, where they 
had three or four outlying towns.* Their name of Neu- 
trals was due to their neutrality in the war between the 
Hurons and the Iroquois proper. The hostile warriors, 
meeting in a Neutral cabin, were forced to keep the peace, 
though, once in the open air, the truce was at an end. 
Yet this people were abundantly ferocious, and, while 



1 " L'ame de tous les Conseils." — Charlevoix, Voyage, 199. — In 1763 
they were Pontiac's best warriors. 

2 On tlie Tionnontates, see Le Mercier, Relation, 1637, 163 ; Lalemant, 
Relation, 1641, 69 ; Ragueneau, Relation, 1648, 61. An excellent summary 
af tlieir character and history, by Mr. Shea, will be found in Hist. Mag., 
V. 262. 

3 Attiwandarons, Attiwendaronk, Atirhagenrenrets, Rhagenratka 
(Jesuit Relations), Attionidarons {Sagard). They, and not the Eries, were 
the Kaklctuas of Seneca tradition. 

* Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1641, 71. — The Niagara was then 
called the River of the Neutrals, or the Onguiaahra. Lalemant estimates 
the Neutral population, in 1640, at twelve thousand, in forty villages. 



THE NEUTRAL NATION. xlv 

holding a pacific attitude betwixt tlieir warring kindred, 
waged deadly strife with the Mascoutins, an Algonquin 
horde beyond Lake Michigan. Indeed, it was but recently 
that they had been at blows with seventeen Algonquin 
tribes.^ They burned female prisoners, a practice un- 
known to the Hurons.^ Their country was full of game, 
and they were bold and active hunters. In form and 
stature they surpassed even the Hurons, whom they re- 
sembled in their mode of life, and from whose language 
their own, though radically similar, was dialectically dis- 
tinct. Their licentiousness was even more open and 
shameless ; and they stood alone in the extravagance of 
some of their usages. They kept their dead in their 
houses till they became insupportable ; then scraped the 
flesh from the bones, and displayed them in rows along 
the walls, there to remain till the periodical Feast of the 
Dead, or general burial. In summer, the men wore no 
clothing whatever, but were usually tattooed from head to 
foot with powdered charcoal. 

The sagacious Hurons refused them a passage through 
their country to the French ; and the Neutrals apparently 
had not sense or reflection enough to take the easy and 
direct route of Lake Ontario, which was probably open 
to them, though closed against the Hurons by Iroquois 
enmity. Thus the former made excellent profit by ex- 
changing French goods at high rates for the valuable furs 
of the Neutrals.^ 

I Lettre da Pere La Roche Dallion, 8 Juillet, 1627, in Le Clerc, 
EtMissement de la Foy, I. 346. 

'^ Women were often burned by the Iroquois : witness tlie case of 
Catherine Mercier in 1651, and many cases of Indian women mentioned 
by the early writers. 

3 The Hurons became very jealous, when La Roche Dallion visited 
the Neutrals, lest a direct trade should be opened between the latter and 
the French, against whom they at once put in circulation a variety of 



Xlvi INTRODUCTION. 

Southward and eastward of Lake Erie dwelt a kindred 
people, the Eries, or Nation of the Cat. Little besides 
their existence is known of them. They seem to have 
occupied Southwestern New York, as far east as the 
Genesee, the frontier of the Senecas, and in habits and 
language to have resembled the Hurons.^ They were 
noted warriors, fought with poisoned arrows, and were 
long a terror to the neighboring Iroquois.^ 

On the Lower Susquehanna dwelt the formidable tribe 
called by the French Andastes. Little is known of them, 
beyond their general resemblance to their kindred, in lan- 
guage, habits, and cliaracter. Fierce and resolute war- 
riors, they long made head against the Iroquois of New 
York, and were vanquished at last more by disease than 
by the tomaliawk.^ 

In Central New York, stretching east and west from 
the Hudson to tlie Genesee, lay that redoubted people 

slanders : that they were a people who lived on snakes and venom ; that 
they were furnished with tails ; and that French women, though having 
but one breast, bore six children at a birth. The missionary nearly lost 
his life in consequence, the Neutrals conceiving the idea that he would 
infect their country with a pestilence. — La Roche Dallion, in Le Clerc, 
I. 346. 

1 Ragueneau, Relation des Harons, 1648, 46. 

2 Le Mercier, Relation, 1654, 10. — " Nous les appellons la Nation Chat, 
k cause qu'il y a dans leur pais vne quantite prodigieuse de Chats sau- 
uages." — Ibid. — The Iroquois are said to have given the same name, 
Jegosasa, Cat Nation, to the Neutrals. — Morgan, League of the Iroquois, 41. 

Synoni/mes : Eries, Erigas, Eriehronon, Riguehronon. The Jesuits 
never had a mission among them, though they seem to have been visited 
by Champlain's adventurous interpreter, fitienne Brule, in the summer 
of 1615. — They are probably the Carantoiians of Champlain. 

3 Gallatin erroneously places the Andastes on the Alleghany, Bancroft 
and others adopting the error. The research of Mr. Shea has shown 
their identity with the Siisqiiehannocks of the English, and the Minquas of 
the Dutch. — See Hist. Mag., II. 294. 

Synonymes: Andastes, Andastracronnons, Andastaeronnons, Andasta- 
guez, Antastoui (French), Susquehannocks (English), Mengwe, Minquas 
(Dutch), Conestogas, Conessetagoes (English). 



THE IROQUOIS. xlvii 

who have lent their name to the tribal family of the Iro- 
quois, and stamped it indelibly on the early pages of 
American history. Among all the barbarous nations 
of the continent, the Iroquois of New York stand para- 
mount. Elements which among other tribes were crude, 
confused, and embryotic, were among them systematized 
and concreted into an established polity. The Iroquois 
was the Indian of Indians. A thorough savage, yet a 
finished and developed savage, he is perhaps an example 
of the highest elevation which man can reach witliout 
emerging from his primitive condition of the hunter. A 
geographical position, commanding on one hand the port- 
al of the Great Lakes, and on the other the sources of 
the streams flowing both to the Atlantic and the Missis- 
sippi, gave the ambitious and aggressive confederates ad- 
vantages which they perfectly understood, and by which 
they profited to the utmost. Patient and politic as they 
were ferocious, they were not only conquerors of their 
own race, but the powerful allies and the dreaded foes of 
the French and English colonies, flattered and caressed 
by both, yet too sagacious to give themselves without 
reserve to either. Their organization and their history 
evince their intrinsic superiority. Even their traditionary 
lore, amid its wild puerilities, shows at times the stamp 
of an energy and force in striliing contrast with the flimsy 
creations of Algonquin fancy. That tlie Iroquois, left 
under their institutions to work out their destiny undis- 
turbed, would ever have developed a civilization of their 
own, I do not believe. These institutions, however, arc 
sufficiently characteristic and curious, and we shall soon 
have occasion to observe them.^ 

1 The name Iroquois is Erench. Charlevoix says : " II a e'te forme du 
terme Uiro, ou Hero, qui signifie J'al dit, et par lequel ces sauvages 
finissent tous leur discours, comma les Latins faisoient autrefois par leur 



Xlviii INTRODUCTION. 



SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. 

In Indian social organization, a problem at once suggests 
itself. In these communities, comparatively populous, 
how could spirits so fierce, and in many respects so un- 
governed, live together in peace, without law and without 
enforced authority ? Yet there were towns where sav- 
ages lived together in thousands with a harmony which 
civilization might envy. This was in good measure due 
to peculiarities of Indian character and habits. This 
intractable race were, in certain external respects, the 
most pliant and complaisant of mankind. The early mis- 
sionaries were charmed by the docile acquiescence with 
which their dogmas were received ; but they soon discov- 
ered tliat their facile auditors neither believed nor under- 
stood that to which they had so promptly assented They 
assented from a kind of courtesy, which, while it vexed 
the priests, tended greatly to keep the Indians in mutual 

Dixi; et de Kou^, qui est un cri tan tot de tristesse, lorsqu'on le prononce 
en trainant, et tantot de joye, quand on le prononce plus court." — Hist, 
de la N. F., I. 271. — Their true name is Ilodenosaunee, or People of the 
Long House, because their confederacy of five distinct nations, ranged in 
a line along Central New York, was likened to one of the long bark 
houses already described, with five fires and five families. The name Ag- 
onnonsioiuii, or AcjuanuscionI , ascribed to them by Lafitau and Charlevoix, 
who translated it " House-Makers," Faiseurs de Cahannes, may be a conver- 
sion of the true name with an erroneous rendering. The following are the 
true names of tlie five nations severally, with their French and English 
synonymes. For other synonymes, see " History of the Conspiracy of 
Pontiac," 8, note. 

English. French. 

Ganeagaono, Mohawk, Agnier. 

Onayotekaono, Oneida, Onneyut. 

Onundagaono, Onondaga, Onnontague. 

Gweugwehoiio, * Cayuga, Goyogouin. 

Nundawaono, Seneca, Tsonnontouans. 

The Iroquois termination in ono — or onon, as the French write it — 
simply means people. 



INDIAN GENEROSITY. xHx 

accord. That well-known self-control, which, originating 
in a form of pride, covered the savage nature of the man 
with a veil, opaque, though thin, contributed not a little to 
the same end. Though vain, arrogant, boastful, and vin- 
dictive, the Indian bore abuse and sarcasm with an aston- 
ishing patience. Though greedy and grasping, he was 
lavish without stint, and would give away his all to soothe 
the manes of a departed relative, gain influence and ap- 
plause, or ingratiate himself with his neighbors. In his 
dread of public opinion, he rivalled some of his civilized 
successors. 

All Indians, and especially these populous and sta- 
tionary tribes, had their code of courtesy, whose require- 
ments were rigid and exact ; nor might any infringe it 
without the ban of public censure. Indian nature, in- 
flexible and unmalleable, was peculiarly under the con- 
trol of custom. Established usage took the place of law, 

— was, in fact, a sort of common law, with no tribunal 
to expound or enforce it. In these wild democracies, 

— democracies in spirit, though not in form, — a respect 
for native superiority, and a willingness to yield to it, 
were always conspicuous. All were prompt to aid each 
other in distress, and a neighborly spirit was often 
exhibited among them. When a young woman was per- 
manently married, the other women of the village sup- 
plied her with firewood for the year, each contributing an 
armful. When one or more families were without shel- 
ter, the men of the village joined in building them a 
house. In return, the recipients of the favor gave a feast, 
if they could ; if not, their thanks were sufficient.^ 

1 The following testimony concerning Indian charity and hospitality 
is from Eagueneau: "As often as we have seen tribes broken up, towns 
destroyed, and their people driven to flight, we have seen them, to the 
number of seven or eight hundred persons, received with open arms by 



1 INTRODUCTION. 

Among the Iroquois and Hurons — and doubtless among 
the kmdred tribes — there were marked distinctions of 
noble and base, prosperous and poor ; yet, while there 
was food in the village, the meanest and the poorest need 
not suffer want. , He had but to enter the nearest liouse, 
and seat himself by the fire, wh^en, without a word on 
either side, food was placed before him by the women.^ 

Contrary to the received opinion, these Indians, like 
others of their race, when living in communities, were of 
a very social disposition. Besides their incessant dances 
and feasts, great and small, they were continually visit- 
ing, spending most of their time in their neiglibors' 
houses, chatting, joking, bantering one another with wit- 
ticisms, sharp, broad, and in no sense delicate, yet 
always taken in good part. Every village liad its adepts 
in these wordy tournaments, while the shrill laugh of 
young squaws, untaught to blush, echoed each hardy jest 
or rough sarcasm. 

In the organization of the savage communities of the 
continent, one feature, more or less conspicuous, con- 
tinually appears. Each nation or tribe — to adopt the 
names by which these communities are usually known — 
is subdivided into several clans. These clans are not 

charitable hosts, who gladly gave them aid, and even distributed among 
them a part of tlie lands already planted, that they might have the means 
of living." — Relation, 1650, 28. 

1 The Jesuit Brcbeuf, than whom no one knew the Hurons better, is 
very emphatic in praise of their liarmony and social spirit. Speaking of 
)ne of the four nations of which the Hurons were composed, he says : 
*' lis ont vne douceur et vne affabilite quasi incroyable pour des Sau- 
uages ; ils ne se picquent pas aisement. ... lis se maintiennent dans 
cette si parfaite intelligence par les frequentes visites, les secours qu'ila 
se donnent mutueliement dans leurs maladies, par les festins et les 
alliances. ... lis sont moins en leurs Cabanes que chez leurs amis 
. . . S'ils ont vn bon morceau, ils en font festin a leurs amis, et ne le man 
gent quasi iamais en leur particulier^" etc. — Reliitior des Hurons, 1636, 
118. 



INDIAN RULE OF DESCENT. U 

locally separate, but are mingled throughout the nation. 
All the members of each clan are, or are assumed to be, 
intimately joined in consanguinity. Hence it is held an 
abomination for two persons of the same clan to inter- 
marry ; and hence, again, it follows that every family 
must contain members of at least two clans. Each clan 
has its name, as the clan of the Hawk, of the Wolf, or of 
the Tortoise ; and each has for its emblem the figure 
of the beast, bird, reptile, plant, or other object, from 
which its name is derived. This emblem, called totem by 
the Algonquins, is often tattooed on the clansman's body, 
or rudely painted over the entrance of his lodge. The child 
belongs, in most cases, to the clan, not of the father, but of 
the mother. In other words, descent, not of the totem 
alone, but of all rank, titles, and possessions, is through the 
female. The son of a chief can never be a chief by hered- 
itar}'^ title, though he may become so by force of personal 
influence or achievement. Neither can he inherit from 
his father so much as a tobacco-pipe. All possessions 
alike pass of right to the brothers of the chief, or to the 
sons of his sisters, since these are all sprung from a 
common mother. This rule of descent was noticed by 
Champlain among the Hurons in 1615. That excellent 
observer refers it to an origin which is doubtless its true 
one. The child may not be the son of his reputed father, 
but must be the son of his mother, — a consideration of 
more than ordinary force in an Indian community.^ 



1 "Les enfans ne succedent iamais aux biens et dignitez de leura 
peres, doubtant comnie i'ay dit de leur geniteur, mais bien font-ils leurs 
successeurs et lieritiers, les enfans de leurs soeurs, et desquels ils sont 
asseurez^ d'estre yssus et sortis." — Champlain (1627), 91. 

Captain John Smith had observed the same, several years before, 
among the tribes of "Virginia: "For the Crowne, their heyres inherite 
not. but the first heyres of the Sisters." — True Relation, 43 (ed. Deane). 



Hi INTRODUCTION. 

This system of clanship, with the r ile of descent usu- 
ally belonging to it, was of very wide prevalence. Indeed, 
it is more than probable that close observation would 
have detected it in every tribe east of the Mississippi ; 
while there is positive evidence of its existence in by far 
the greater number. It is found also among the Dah- 
cotah and other tribes west of the Mississippi; and tliere 
is reason to believe it universally prevalent as far as the 
Rocky Mountains, and even beyond them. The fact that 
with most of these hordes there is little property worth 
transmission, and that tlie most influential becomes chief, 
with little regard to inheritance, has blinded casual ob- 
servers to the existence of this curious system. 

It was found in full development among the Creeks, 
Choctaws, Cherokees, and other Southern tribes, includ- 
ing that remarkable people, the Natchez, who, judged by 
their religious and political institutions, seem a detached 
offshoot of the Toltec family. It is no less conspicuous 
among the roving Algonquins of the extreme North, 
where the number of totems is almost countless. Every- 
where it formed the foundation of the polity of all the 
tribes, where a polity could be said to exist. 

The Franciscans and Jesuits, close students of the 
languages and superstitions of the Indians, were by no 
means so zealous to analyze their organization and gov- 
ernment. In the middle of the seventeenth century the 
Hurons as a nation had ceased to exist, and their politi- 
cal portraiture, as handed down to us, is careless and un- 
finished. Yet some decisive features are plainly shown. 
The Huron nation was a confederacy of four distinct con- 
tiguous nations, afterwards increased to five by the addi- 
tion of the Tionnontates ; — it was divided into clans ; — 
it was governed by chiefs, whose office was hereditary 
through the female ; — the power of these chiefs, though 



THE IROQUOIS. — THEIE ORIGIN M 

great, was wholly of a persuasive or advisor} character ; 
— there were two principal chiefs, one for peace, the 
other for war ; — there were chiefs assigned to special 
national functions, as the charge of the great Feast of 
the Dead, the direction of trading voyages to other na^- 
tions, etc. ; — there were numerous other chiefs, equal 
in rank, but very unequal in influence, since the meas- 
ure of their influence depended on the measure of their 
personal ability ; — each nation of the confederacy had 
a separate organization, but at certain periods grand 
councils of the united nations were held, at which were 
present, not chiefs only, but also a great concourse of 
the people ; and at these and other councils the chiefs 
and principal men voted on proposed measures by means 
of small sticks or reeds, the opinion of the plurality 
ruling.^ 



THE IROQUOIS. 

The Iroquois were a people far more conspicuous in 
history, and their institutions are not yet extinct. In 
early and recent times, they have been closely studied, 
and no little light has been cast upon a subject as diffi- 
cult and obscure as it is curious. By comparing the 



1 These facts are gathered here and there from Charaplair , Sagard, 
Bressani, and the Jesuit Relations prior to 1650. Of the Jesuits. Brcbeuf 
is the most full and satisfactory. Lafitau and Charlevoix knew the Huron 
institutions only through others. 

The names of the four confederate Huron nations were the Ata- 
ronchronons, Attignenonghac, Attignaouentans, and Ahrendarrhonons. 
There was also a subordinate "nation" called Tohotaenrat, which had 
but one town. (See the map of the Huron Country.) They all bore the 
name of some animal or other object: thus the Attignaouentans were the 
Nation of the Bear. As the clans are usually named after animals, this 
makes confusion, and may easily lead to error. The Bear Nation was the 
principal member of the league. 



liV INTRODUCTION. 

statements of observers, old and new, the character of 
their singular organization becomes sufficiently clear.^ 

Both reason and tradition point to the conclusion, that 
the Iroquois formed originally one undivided people. 
Sundered, like countless other tribes, by dissension, 
caprice, or the necessities of the hunter life, they sepa- 
rated into five distinct nations, cantoned from east to 
west along the centre of New York, in the following 
order : Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas. 
There was discord among them ; wars followed, and they 
lived in mutual fear, each ensconced in its palisaded 
villages. At length, says tradition, a celestial being, in- 
carnate on earth, counselled them to compose their strife 
and unite in a league of defence and aggression. An- 
other personage, wholly mortal, yet wonderfully endowed, 
a renowned warrior and a mighty magician, stands, with 
his hair of writhing snakes, grotesquely conspicuous 
through the dim light of tradition at this birth of Iro- 
quois nationality. This was Atotarho, a chief of the 
Onondagas ; and from this honored source has sprung a 



1 Among modern students of Iroquois institutions, a place far in ad- 
vance of all others is due to Lewis H. Morgan, himself an Iroquois by 
adoption, and intimate with tlie race from boyhood. His work, The 
League of the Iroquois, is a production of most thorough and able research, 
conducted imder peculiar advantages, and with the aid of an efficient co- 
laborer, Ilasanoanda (Ely S. Parker), an educated and highly intelligent 
Iroquois of the Seneca nation. Though often differing widely from Mr. 
Morgan's conclusions, I cannot bear a too emphatic testimony to the 
value of his researches. The Notes on the Iroquois of Mr. H. 11. School- 
craft also contain some interesting facts ; but here, as in all Mr. Scliool- 
craft's productions, tlie reader must scrupulously reserve his right of 
private judgment. None of the old writers are so satisfactory as Lafitau. 
His work, Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains comparees aux Mceiirs des Pre- 
miers Temps, relates chiefly to the Iroquois and Hurons : the basis ibr his 
account of the former being his own observations and those of Father 
Julien Garnier, who was a missionary among them more than sixty 
years, from his novitiate to his death. 



ORGANIZATION OE THE IROQUOIS. ly 

long line of chieftains, heirs not to the blood alone, but to 
the name of their great predecessor. A few years since, 
there lived in Onondaga Hollow a handsome Indian boy 
on whom the dwindled remnant of the nation looked 
with pride as their destined Atotarho. With earthly 
and celestial aid the league was consummated, and 
tlirough all the land the forests trembled at the name of 
the Iroquois. 

The Iroquois people was divided into eight clans. 
When the original stock was sundered into five parts, 
each of these clans was also sundered into five parts ; 
and as, by the principle already indicated, the clans 
were intimately mingled in every village, hamlet, and 
cabin, each one of the five nations had its portion of 
each of the eight clans.^ When the league was formed, 
these separate portions readily resumed their ancient 
tie of fraternity. Thus, of the Turtle clan, all the 
members became brothers again, nominal members of 
one family, whether Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cay- 
ugas, or Senecas ; and so, too, of the remaining clans. 
All the Iroquois, irrespective of nationality, were there- 
fore divided into eight families, each tracing its descent 
to a common mother, and each designated by its distinc- 

1 With a view to clearness, the above statement is made categorical. 
It requires, however, to be qualified. It is not quite certain, that, at the 
formation of the confederacy, there were eight clans, though there is 
positive proof of the existence of seven. Neither is it certain, that, at 
the separation, every clan was represented in ever}' nation. Among the 
Mohawks and Oneidas there is no positive proof of the existence of more 
than three clans, — the Wolf, Bear, and Tortoise; though there is pre- 
sumptive evidence of the existence of several others. — See Morgan, 
81, note. 

The eight clans of the Iroquois were as follows : Wolf, Bear, Beaver, 
Tortoise, Deer, Snipe, Heron, Hawk. (Morgan, 79.) The clans of the 
Snipe and the Heron are the same designated in an early French docu- 
ment as Ln famille du Petit Pluvier and La famille du Grand Pluuier. 
{New Yo7-k Ca'onial Documents, IX. 47.) The anonymous author of this 
document adds a ninth clan, that of the Potato, meaning the wild Indian 



I-Vi INTRODUCTION. 

tive emblem or totem. This connection of clan or family 
was exceedingly strong, and by it the five nations of the 
league were linked together as by an eightfold chain. 

The clans were by no means equal in numbers, influ- 
ence, or honor. So marked were the distinctions among 
them, that some of the early writers recognize only the 
three most conspicuous, — those of the Tortoise, the Bear, 
and the Wolf. To some of the clans, in each nation, 
belonged the right of giving a chief to the nation and 
to the league. Others had the right of giving three, or, 
in one case, four chiefs ; while others could give none. 
As Indian clanship was but an extension of the family 
relation, these chiefs were, in a certain sense, hereditary ; 
but the law of inheritance, though binding, was extremely 
elastic, and capable of stretching to the farthest limits of 
the clan. The chief was almost invariably succeeded by 
a near relative, always through the female, as a brother 
by the same mother, or a nephew by the sister's side. 
But if these were manifestly unfit, they were passed over, 
and a chief was chosen at a council of the clan from 
among remoter kindred. In these cases, the successor is 
said to have been nominated by the matron of the late 
chief's household.^ Be this as it may, the choice was 

potato, Glycine apios. This clan, if it existed, was very inconspicuous, 
and of little importance. 

Kemarkable analogies exist between Iroquois clanship and that of 
other tribes. The eight clans of the Iroquois were separated into tv 
divisions, four in each. Originally, marriage was interdicted between al' 
the members of the same division, but in time the interdict was limited 
to the members of the individual clans. Another tribe, the Choctaws, re* 
nic/te from the Iroquois, and radically different in language, had also eight 
clans, similarly divided, with a similar interdict of marriage. — Gallatin, 
Synopsis, 109. 

The Creeks, according to the account given by their old chief, Seko- 
peclu, to Mr. D. W. Eakins, were divided into nine clans, named in most 
cases from animals: clanship being transmitted, as usual, through the 
female. 

1 Lafitau, I. 471 



COUNCILS. — SACHEMS. Ivii 

never adverse to the popular inclination. The new chief 
was " raised up," or installed, by a formal council of the 
sachems of the league ; and on entering upon his office, 
he dropped his own name, and assumed that which, since 
the formation of the league, had belonged to this especial 
chieftainship. 

The number of these principal chiefs, or, as they have 
been called by way of distinction, sachems, varied in the 
several nations from eight to fourteen. The sachems 
of the five nations, fifty in all, assembled in council, 
formed the government of the confederacy. All met as 
equals, but a peculiar dignity was ever attached to the 
Atotarho of the Onondagas. 

There was a class of subordinate chiefs, in no sense 
hereditary, but rising to office by address, ability, or 
valor. Yet the rank was clearly defined, and the new 
chief installed at a formal council. This class embodied, 
as might be supposed, the best talent of the nation, and 
the most prominent warriors and orators of the Iroquois 
have belonged to it. In its character and functions, how- 
ever, it was purely civil. Like the sachems, these chiefs 
held their councils, and exercised an influenrce propor- 
tionate to their number and abilities. 

There was another council, between which and that of 
the subordinate chiefs the line of demarcation seems not 
to have been very definite. The Jesuit Lafitau calls it 
" the senate." Familiar with the Iroquois at the height 
of their prosperity, he describes it as the central and con- 
trolling power, so far, at least, as the separate nations 
were concerned. In its character it was essentially popu- 
lar, but popular in the best sense, and one which can 
find its application only in a small community. Any man 
took part in it whose age and experience qualified liim to 
do so. It was merely the gathered wisdom of the nation. 



Iviii INTRODUCTION. 

Lafitau compares it to the Roman Senate, in the early 
and rude age of the Republic, and affirms that it loses 
nothing by the comparison. He thus describes it : " It 
is a greasy assemblage, sitting sur leu?- derriere, crouched 
like apes, their knees as liigh as their ears, or lying, some 
on their bellies, some on their backs, each with a pipe in 
his mouth, discussing affiiirs of state with as much cool- 
ness and gravity as the Spanish Junta or the Grand 
Council of Venice." ^ 

The young warriors had also their councils ; so, too, 
had the women ; and the opinions and wishes of each 
were represented by means of deputies before the " sen- 
ate," or council of the old men, as well as before the 
grand confederate council of the sachems. 

The government of this unique republic resided wholly 
m councils. By councils all questions were settled, all 
regulations established, — social, political, military, and 
religious. The war-path, the chase, the council-fire, — in 
these was the life of the Iroquois ; and it is hard to say 
to which of the three he was most devoted. 

The great council of the fifty sachems formed, as we 
have seen, the government of the league. Whenever a 
subject arose before any of the nations, of importance 
enough to demand its assembling, the sachems of that 
nation might summon their colleagues by means of run- 
ners, bearing messages and belts of wampum. The 
usual place of meeting was the valley of Onondaga, the 
political as well as geographical centre of the confeder- 
acy. Thither, if the matter were one of deep and 
general interest, not the sachems alone, but the greater 
part of the population, gathered from east and west, 
swarming in the hospitable lodges of the town, or bivou- 
acked by thousands in the surrounding fields and forests. 
1 Lafitau, I. 478. 



THE GREAT COUNCIL. lix 

While the sachems deliberated in the council-house, the 
chiefs and old men, the warriors, and often the women, 
were holding their respective councils apart; and their 
opinions, laid by their deputies before the council of sa- 
chems, were never without influence on its decisions. 

The utijiost order and deliberation reigned in the 
council, with rigorous adherence to the Indian notions 
of parliamentary propriety. The conference opened with 
an address to the spirits, or the cliief of all the spirits. 
There was no heat in debate. No speaker interrupted 
another. Each gave his opinion in turn, supporting it 
with what reason or rhetoric he could command, — but 
not until he had stated the subject of discussion in full, 
to prove that he understood it, repeating also the argu- 
ments, pro and con, of previous speakers. Thus their 
debates were excessively prolix ; and the consumption of 
tobacco was immoderate. The result, however, was a 
thorough sifting of the matter in hand ; while the prac- 
tised astuteness of these savage politicians was a marvel 
to their civilized contemporaries. " It is by a most 
subtle policy," says Lafitau, " that they have taken the 
ascendant over the other nations, divided and overcome 
the most warlike, made themselves a terror to the most 
remote, and now hold a peaceful neutrality between the 
French and English, courted and feared by both." ^ 

Unlike the Hurons, they required an entire unanimity 

1 Lafitau, I. 480. — Many other French writers speak to the same 
effect. The following are the words of the soldier historian, La Potherie, 
after describing the organization of the league : " C'est done la cette 
politique qui les unit si bien, a peu pres comme tons les ressorts d'une 
horloge, qui par une liaison admirable de toutes les parties qui les com- 
posent, contribuent toutes unanimement au merveilleux effet qui en 
resulte." — Hist, de I'Aine'rique Septentrionale, III. 32. — He adds: "Les 
Fran9ois ont avoiie' eux-memes qu'ils etoient nez pour la guerre, & quel- 
ques maux qu'ils nous ayent faits nous les avons toujours estimez." — 
Ibid., 2.— La Potherie's book was published in 1722. 



Ix INTEODUCTION. 

ill their decisions. The ease and frequency with which 
a requisition seemingly so difficult was fulfilled afford 
a striking illustration of Indian nature, — on one side, 
so stvibborn, tenacious, and impracticable ; on the other, 
so pliant and acquiescent. An explanation of this har- 
mony is to be found also in an intense spirit of nation- 
ality : for never since the days of Sparta were individual 
life and national life more completely fused into one. 

The sachems of the league were likewise, as we have 
seen, sachems of their respective nations ; yet they rarely 
spoke in the councils of the subordinate chiefs and old 
men, except to present subjects of discussion.^ Their 
influence in these councils was, however, great, and even 
paramount ; for they commonly succeeded in securing to 
their interest some of the most dexterous and influential 
of the conclave, through whom, while they themselves re- 
mained in the background, they managed the debates.^ 

There was a class of men among the Iroquois always 
put forward on public occasions to speak the mind of the 
nation or defend its interests. Nearly all of them were of 
the number of the subordinate chiefs. Nature and train- 

1 Lafitau, I. 479. 

2 The following from Lafitau is very characteristic : " Ce que je dis de 
leur zele pour le bien public n'est cependant pas si universel, que plusi- 
eurs lie pensent a leur interets particuliers, & que les Chefs (sachems) prin- 
<;ipaleiiient ne fassent joiier plusieurs ressorts secrets pour venir a bout 
de leurs intrigues. II y en a tel, dont I'adresse joue si bien a coup sdr, 
qu'il fait de'liljerer le Conseil plusieurs jours de suite, sur une matiere 
dont la determination est arretee entre lui & les principales tetes avant 
d'avoir ete mise sur le tapis. Cependant comrae les Chefs s'entre-regard- 
ent, & qu'aucun ne veut paroitre se donner une superiorite qui puisse 
piquer la jalousie, ils se menagent dans les Conseils plus que les autres ; 
& quoiqu'ils en soient I'ame, leur politique les oblige a y parler pen, & a 
ecouter pliitot le sentiment d'autrui, qu'a y dire le leur ; mais chacun a 
un homnie a sa main, qui est comme une espece de Brulot, & qui etant 
sans consequence pour sa personne hazarde en pleine liberte tout ce qu'il 
juge a propos, selon qu'il I'a concerte' avec le Chef meme pour qui il 
agit." — Mceurs des Sauvages, I. 481. 



PUJ^ISHMENT OF CRIME. 1x1 

ing had fitted them for pubhc speaking, and they were 
deeply versed in the history and traditions of the league. 
They were in fact professed orators, high in honor and 
influence among the people. To a huge stock of con- 
ventional metaphors, the use of which required nothing 
but practice, they often added an astute intellect, an 
astonishing memory, and an eloquence which deserved 
the name. 

In one particular, the training of these savage politi- 
cians was never surpassed. They had no art of writing 
to record events, or preserve the stipulations of treaties. 
Memory, therefore, was tasked to the utmost, and de- 
veloped to an extraordinary degree. They had various 
devices for aiding it, such as bundles of sticks, and that 
system of signs, emblems, and rude pictures, which they 
shared with otlier tribes. Their famous wampum-belts 
were so many mnemonic signs, each standing for some 
act, speech, treaty, or clause of a treaty. These repre- 
sented the public archives, and were divided among 
various custodians,^ each charged with the memory and 
interpretation of those assigned to him. The meaning 
of the belts was from time to time expounded in their 
councils. In conferences with them, nothing more as- 
tonished the French, Dutch, and English officials than 
the precision with which, before replying to their ad- 
dresses, the Indian orators repeated them point by 
point. 

It was only in rare cases that crime among the Iro* 
quois or Hurons was punished by public authority. 
Murder, the most heinous offence, except witchcraft, 
recognized among them, was rare. ' If the slayer and the 
slain were of the same household or clan, the affair was 
regarded as a family quarrel, to be settled by the imme- 
diate kin on both sides. This, under the pressure of 

f 



Ixii INTRODUCTION. 

public opinion, was commonly effected without blood- 
shed, by presents given in atonement. But if the mur- 
derer and his victim were of different clans or different 
nations, still more, if the slai'i was a foreigner, the 
whole community became interested to prevent the dis- 
cord or the war which might arise. All directed tlieir 
efforts, not to bring the murderer to punishment, but to 
satisfy the injured parties by a vicarious atonement.^ 
To this end, contributions were made and presents col- 
lected. Their number and value were determined by 
established usage. Among the Hurons, thirty presents 
of very considerable value were the price of a man's life. 
That of a woman's was fixed at forty, by reason of her 
weakness, and because on her depended the continuance 
and increase of the population. Tliis was when the slain 
belonged to the nation. If of a foreign tribe, his death 
demanded a higher compensation, since it involved the 
danger of war.^ These presents were offered in solemn 
council, with prescribed formalities. The relatives of 
tlie slain might refuse them, if they chose, and in this 
case tlie murderer was given them as a slave ; but 
they might by no means kill him, since, in so doing, they 
would incur public censure, and be compelled in their 
turn to make atonement. Besides the principal gifts, 
there was a great number of less lalue, all symbolical, 
and each delivered with a set form of words : as, " By 
this we wash out the blood of the slain : By tliis we 
cleanse his wound : By this we clothe his corpse with a 
new shirt : By this we place food on his grave " : and 



1 Lalemant, while inveighing against a practice which made the 
public, and not the criminal, answerable for an offence, admits that 
heinous crimes wore more rare than in France, wjiere the guilty party 
himself was punished. — Lettre au P. Provincial, 15 May, 1645. 

'■* Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1648, 80. 



MILITARY ORGANIZATION. Ixiii 

SO, in endless prolixity, through particulars without num- 
ber.i 

The Hurons were notorious thieves ; and perhaps the 
Iroquois were not much better, though the contrary has 
been asserted. Among both, the robbed was permitted 
not only to retake his property by force, if he could, but 
to strip the robber of all he had. This apparently acted 
as a restraint in favor only of the strong, leaving the 
weak a prey to the plunderer ; but here the tic of family 
and clan intervened to aid him. Relatives and clansmen 
espoused the quarrel of him who could not right him- 
sclf.'-^ 

Witches, with whom the Hurons and Iroquois were 
grievously infested, were objects of utter abomination to 
both, and any one might kill them at any time. If any 
person was guilty of treason, or by his character and 
conduct made himself dangerous or obnoxious to the 
public, the council of chiefs and old men held a secret 
session on his case, condemned him to death, and ap 
pointed some young man to kill him. The executioner, 
watcliing his opportunity, brained or stabbed him una- 
wares, usually in the dark porch of one of the houses. 
Acting by authority, he could not be held answerable; 
and the relatives of the slain had no redress, even if they 
desired it. The council, liowcver, commonly obviated all 
difficulty in advance, by charging the culprit with witch- 
craft, thus alienating his best friends. 

The military organization of the Iroquois was exceed' 

1 I'agucneaii, Relation dcf Hurons, 1648, gives a description of one of 
these ceremonies at lengtli. Those of the Iroquois on such occasions 
were similar. Many other tribes hatl tlie same custom, but attended with 
mucli less form and ceremony. Compare Perrot, 73-76. 

2 The proceedings for detecting thieves were regular and methodical, 
after establislied customs. According to Bressani, no thief ever incul> 
pated the iuuocent. 



Ixiv INTRODUCTION. 

inglj imperfect and derived all its efficiency from their 
civil union and their personal prowess. There were two 
hereditary war-chiefs, both belonging to the Senecas ; 
but, except on occasions of unusual importance, it does 
not appear that they took a very active part in the con- 
duct of wars. The Iroquois lived in a state of chronic 
warfare with nearly all the surrounding tribes, except a 
few from whom they exacted tribute. Any man of suffi- 
cient personal credit might raise a war-party when he 
chose. He proclaimed his purpose through the village, 
sang his war-songs, struck his hatchet into the war-post, 
and danced the war-dance. Any wlio chose joined him ; 
and the party usually took up their march at once, with 
a little parched-corn-meal and maple-sugar as their sole 
provision. On great occasions, there was concert of ac- 
tion, — the various parties meeting at a rendezvous, and 
pursuing the march together. The leaders of war-par- 
ties, like the orators, belonged, in nearly all cases, to the 
class of subordinate cbiefs. The Iroquois had a disci- 
pline suited to the dark and tangled forests where they 
fought. Here they were a terrible foe : in an open coun- 
try, against a trained European force, they were, despite 
their ferocious valor, far less formidable. 

In observing this singular organization, one is struck 
by the incongruity of its spirit and its form. A body of 
hereditary oligarchs was the head of the nation, yet the 
nation was essentially democratic. Not that the Iroquois 
were levellei'S. None were more prompt to acknowledge 
superiority and defer to it, whether established by usage 
and prescription, or the result of personal endowment. 
Yet each man, whether of high or low degree, had 
a voice in the conduct of affairs, and was never for a 
moment divorced from his wild spirit of independence. 
Where tlierc was no property worthy the name, authority 



SriEIT OF IHE CONFEDERACY. IxV 

had no fulcrum and no hold. The constant aim of 
sachems and chiefs was to exercise it without seeming to 
do so. They had no insignia of office. Thej were no 
richer than others ; indeed, they were often poorer, spend- 
ing their substance in largesses and bribes to strengthen 
their influence. They hunted and fished for subsistence ; 
they were as foul, greasy, and unsavory as the rest ; yet 
in them, withal, was often seen a native dignity of bear-; 
ing, which ochre and bear's grease could not hide, and 
wiiich comported well with their strong, symmetrical, 
and sometimes majestic proportions. 

To the institutions, traditions, rites, usages, and festi- 
vals of the league the Iroquois was inseparably wedded: 
He clung to them with Indian tenacity ; and he clings to 
them still. His political fabric was one of ancient ideas 
and practices, crystallized into regular and enduring 
forms. In its component parts it has nothing peculiar 
to itself. All its elements are found in other tribes : 
most of them belong to the wliole Indian race. Un 
doubtedly there was a distinct and definite effort of 
legislation ; but Iroquois legislation invented nothing. 
Like all sound legislation, it built of materials already 
prepared. It organized the chaotic past, and gave con- 
crete forms to Indian nature itself. The people have 
dwindled and decayed; but, banded by its ties of clan 
and kin, the league, in feeble miniature, still subsists, 
and the degenerate Iroquois looks back with a mournful 
pride to the glory of the past. 

Would the Iroquois, left undisturbed to work out 
their own destiny, ever have emerged from the savage 
state ? Advanced as they were beyond most other Amer- 
ican tribes, there is no indication whatever of a tendency 
to overpass the confines of a wild hunter and warrior 
life. They were inveterately attached to it, impracticable 

/* 



IXVi INTRODUCTION. 

conservatists of barbarism, and in ferocity and cruelty 
they matched the worst of tlieir race. Nor did the power 
of expansion apparently belonging to their system ever 
produce much result. Between tlie years 1712 and 1715, 
the Tuscaroras, a kindred people, were admitted into the 
league as a sixth nation ; but they were never admitted 
on equal terms. Long after, in the period of their decline, 
several other tribes were announced as new members of 
the league; but these admissions never took effect. The 
Iroquois were always reluctant to receive other tribes, or 
parts of tribes, collectively, into the precincts of the 
" Long House." Yet they constantly practised a system 
of adoptions, from which, though cruel and savage, they 
drew great advantages. Their prisoners of war, vrhen 
they had burned and butchered as many of them as would 
serve to sate their own ire and that of their women, were 
divided, man by man, woman by woman, and child by 
child, adopted into different families and clans, and thus 
incorporated into the natio)i. It was by this means, and 
this alone, that they could offset the losses of their inces- 
sant wars. Early in the eighteenth century, and even 
long before, a vast proportion of their population con- 
sisted of adopted prisoners.^ 

1 Relation, 1660, 7 (anonymous). Tlie Iroquois were at the height of 
tlieir prosperity about the year 1650. Morgan reckons their number at 
this time at 25,000 souls ; but this is far too liigh an estimate. The 
autlior of the Relation of 1G60 makes their whole number of warriors 2,200. 
Le Mereier, in the Relation of 1665, says 2,850. In the Journal of Green- 
halgh, an Englisliman who visited them in 1677, their warriors are set 
down at 2,150. Du Chesneau, in 1681, estimates them at 2,000; I)e la 
Barro, in 1684, at 2,600, they having been strengthened by adoptions. 
A memoir addressed to the Marquis de Seignelay, in 1687, again makes 
them 2,000. (See N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 102, 1%, 321.) These estimates 
imply a total population of ten or twelve thousand. 

The anonymous writer of the Relation of 1660 may well remark : 
"It is marvellous that so few should make so great a havoc, and strike 
Buch terror into so many tribes." 



INDIAN PANTHEISM. lx\'ii 

It remains to speak of the religious i»nd superstitious 
ideas which so deeply influenced Indian life. 

RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS. 

The religious belief of the North-American Indians, 
seems, on a first view, anomalous and contradictory. 
It certainly is so, if we adopt the popular impression. 
Romance, Poetry, and Rhetoric point, on the one hand, 
to the august conception of a one all-ruling Deity, a 
Great Spirit, omniscient and omnipresent; and we are 
called to admire the untutored intellect which could 
conceive a thought too vast for Socrates and Plato. On 
the other hand, we find a chaos of degrading, ridicu- 
lous, and incoherent superstitions. A closer examination 
will show that the contradiction is more apparent than 
real. We will begin with the lowest forms of Indian 
belief, and thence trace it upward to the highest con- 
ceptions to which the unassisted mind of the savage 
attained. 

To the Indian, the material world is sentient and intel- 
ligent. Birds, beasts, and reptiles have ears for human 
prayers, and are endowed with an influence on human 
destiny. A mysterious and inexplicable power resides in 
inanimate things. They, too, can listen to the voice of 
man, and influence his*life for evil or for good. Lakes, 
rivers, and waterfalls are sometimes the dwelling-place of 
spirits; but more frequently they are themselves living 
beings, to be propitiated by prayers and offerings. The 
lake has a soul ; and so has the river, and the cata- 
ract. Each can hear the words of men, and each can 
be pleased or offended. In the silence of a forest, the 
gloom of. a deep ravine, resides a living mystery, in- 
definite, but redoubtable. Through all the works of 



Ixviii INTRODUCTION. 

Nature or of man, nothing exists, however seemingly 
trivial, that may not be endowed with a secret power 
for blessing or for bane. 

Men and animals are closely akin. Each species of 
animal has its great archetype, its progenitor or king, 
who is supposed to exist somewhere, prodigious in size, 
thougli in shape and nature like his subjects. A belief 
prevails, vague, but perfectly ajjparent, that men them- 
selves owe their first parentage to beasts, birds, or rep- 
tiles, as bears, wolves, tortoises, or cranes ; and the 
names of the totemic clans, borrowed in nearly every case 
from animals, are the reflection of this idea.^ 

An Indian hunter was always anxious to propitiate the 
animals he sought to kill. He has often been known to 
address a wounded bear in a long harangue of apology .^ 
The bones of the beaver were treated with especial ten- 
derness, and carefully kept from the dogs, lest the spirit 
of the dead beaver, or his surviving brethren, should take 
olTcuce.^ This solicitude was not confined to animals, 

1 This belief occasionally takes a perfectly definite shape. There 
was a tradition among Northern and Western tribes, that men were cre- 
ated from the carcasses of beasts, birds, and fishes, by Manabozho, a 
mythical personage, to be described hereafter. The Amikouas, or People 
of the Beaver, an Algonquin tribe of Lake Huron, claimed descent from 
the carcass of the great original beaver, or father of the beavers. They 
believed that the rapids and cataracts on the French River and the Upper 
Ottawa were caused by dams made by thgir amphibious ancestor. (See 
the tradition in Perrot, Memoirc sur les Maeurs, Constumes et RelUgion des 
Sauvages de VAmerique Septmtrionale, p. 20.) Charlevoix tells the same 
story. Each Indian was supposed to inherit something of the nature 
of the animal whence he sprung. 

•^ MoKinney, Tour to the Lakes, 284, mentions the discomposure of a 
party of Indians when shown a stuffed moose. Thinking that its spirit 
would be offended at the indignity shown to its remains, they surrounded 
it, making apologetic speeches, and blowing tobacco-smoke at it as a 
propitiatory offering. 

3 This superstition was very prevalent, and numerous examples of it 
occur in old and recent writers, from Father Le Jeune to Captain Carver. 



MANITOUS AJ^D ( KIES. Ixix 

but extended to inanimate things. A remarkable exam- 
ple occurred among the Hurons, a people comparatively 
advanced, who, to propitiate their fishing-nets^ and per- 
suade them to do their office with effect, married them 
every year to two young girls of the tribe, with a cere- 
mony far more formal than that observed in the case of 
mere human wedlock.^ The fish, too, no less than the 
nets, must be propitiated ; and to this end they were ad- 
dressed every evening from the fishing-camp by one of 
the party chosen for that function, who exhorted them 
to take courage and be caught, assuring them that the 
utmost respect should be shown to their bones. The 
harangue, which took place after the evening meal, was 
made in solemn form ; and while it lasted, the whole 
party, except the speaker, were required to lie on their 
backs, silent and motionless, around the fire.^ 

Besides ascribing life and intelligence to the material 
world, animate and inanimate, the Indian believes in 
supernatural existences, known among the Algonquins as 
Manitous, and among the Iroquois and Hurons as Okies 
or Otkons. These words comprehend all forms of super 
natural being, from the highest to the lowest, with the 
exception, possibly, of certain dbninutive fairies or hob- 
goblins, and certain giants and anomalous monsters, 

1 There are frequent allusions to this ceremony in the early writers. 
The Algonquins of the Ottawa practised it, as well as the Hurons. Lale- 
mant, in his chapter " Du Regne de Satan en ces Contrees " {Relation des 
Hurons, 1639), says that.it took place yearly, in the middle of March. As 
,'t was indispensable that the brides should be virgins, mere children were 
cnosen. The net was held between them ; and its spirit, or oki, was 
harangued by one of the chiefs, who exhorted him to do his part in fur- 
nishing the tribe with food. Lalemant was told that the spirit of the net 
had once appeared in human form to the Algonquins, complaining that 
ha had lost his wife, and warning them, that, unless they could find Mm 
another equally immaculate, they would catch no more fish. 

2 Sagard, Le Grand Voyage da Pays des Hurons, 257. Other old 
writers make a similar statement. 



IXX INTRODUCTION. 

■which appear under various forms, grotesque and horri- 
ble, in the Indian fireside legends.^ There are local 
manitous of streams, rocks, mountains, cataracts, and 
forests. The conception of these beings betrays, for the 
most part, a striking poverty of imagination. In nearly 
every case, when they reveal themselves to mortal sight, 
they bear the semblance of beasts, reptiles, or birds, in 
shapes unusual or distorted.^ There are other manitous 
without local habitation, some good, some evil, countless 
in number and indefinite in attributes. They fill the 
world, and control the destinies of men, — that is to say, 
of Indians : for the primitive Indian holds that the white 
man lives under a spiritual rule distinct from that which 
governs his own fate. These beings, also, appear for 
the most part in the shape of animals. Sometimes, 
liowever, they assume human proportions ; but more 
frequently they take the form of stones, which, being 
broken, are found full of living blood and flesh. 

Each primitive Indian has his guardian manitou, to 
whom he looks for counsel, guidance, and protection. 
These spii'itual allies are gained by the following pro- 
cess. At tlie age of fourteen or fifteen, the Indian boy 
blackens his face, retires to some solitary place, and 
remains for days without food. Superstitious expec- 
tancy and the exhaustion of abstinence rarely fail of their 
results. His sleep is haunted by visions, and the form 
which first or most often appears is that of his guardian 

1 Many tribes have tales of diminutive beings, which, in tlie absence 
of a better word, may be called fairies. In the Travels of Lewis and 
Clailce, there is mention of a hill on the Missouri, supposed to be haunted 
by them. These Western fairies correspond to the Puck Wudj Iniiiee 
of Ojibwa tradition. As an example of the monsters alluded to, see the 
Saginaw story of the Weendigoes, in Schoolcraft, Algic Researches, II. 10l>. 

2 The figure of a large bird is perhaps the most common, — as, for 
example, the good spirit of Rock Island : " He was wliite, with wings 
like a swan, but ten times larger." — Aatohiography of Blackhawk, 70. 



THE GUARDIAI!? MANITOU. Ixxi 

manitou, — a beast, a bird, a fish, a serpent, or some 
other object, animate or inanimate. An eagle or a bear 
is the vision of a destined warrior; a wolf, of a suc- 
cessful hunter ; while a serpent foreshadows the future 
medicine-man, or, according to others, portends disaster.^ 
The young Indian tlienceforth wears about his person the 
object revealed in his dream, or some portion of it, — as a 
bone, a feather, a snake-skin, or a tuft of hair. This, in 
the modern language of the forest and prairie, is known 
as his " medicine." The Indian yields to it a sort of 
worship, propitiates it with offerings of tobacco, thanks it 
in prosperity, and upbraids it in disaster.^ If his medi- 
cine fails to bring the desired success, he will sometimes 
discard it and adopt another. The superstition now 
becomes mere fetich-worship, since the Indian regards 
the mysterious object which he carries about him ratber as 
an embodiment than as a representative of a supernatural 
power. 

Indian belief recognizes also another and very differ- 

1 Compare Cass, in North-American Review, Second Series, XIII. 100. 
A turkey-buzzard, according to him, is the vision of a medicine-man. I 
once knew an old Dahcotah cliief, wlio was greatly respected, but had 
never been to war, though belonging to a family of peculiarly warlike 
propensities. The reason was, that, in his initiatory fast, he had dreamed 
of an antelope, — the peace-spirit of his people. 

Women fast, as well as men, — always at the time of transition from 
childhood to maturity. In the Narrative of John Tanner, there is an 
account of an old woman who had fasted, in her youth, for ten days, and 
throughout her life i)laced the firmest faith in the visions which had 
appeared to her at that time. Among the Northern Algonquins, the 
practice, down to a recent day, was almost universal. 

2 The author has seen a Dahcotah warrior open his medicine-bag, 
talk with an air of affectionate respect to the bone, feather, or horn 
within, and blow tobacco-smolce upon it as an offering. " Medicines " are 
acquired not only by lasting, but by casual dreams, and otherwise. They 
are sometimes even bought and sold. For a curious account of medicine- 
bags andfetich-worsliip among the Algonquins of Gaspe, see Le Clerc, 
Nouvelle Relation d" hi Gaspe'sie, Chap. XIII. 



Ixxii INTRODUCTION. 

6nt class of beings. Besides the giants and monsters of 
legendary lore, otlier conceptions may bo discerned, more 
or less distinct, and of a cliaracter partly mythical. Of 
these the most conspicuous is that remarkable personage 
of Algonquin tradition, called Manabozho. Messou, Micha- 
bou, Nanabush, or the Great Hare. As each species of 
animal has its arclietype or king, so, among the Algon- 
quins, Manabozho is king of all these animal kings. 
Tradition is diverse as to his origin. According to the 
most current belief, his father was the West- Wind, and 
his mother a great-granddaughter of tlie Moon. His 
character is worthy of such a parentage. Sometimes he 
is a wolf, a bird, or a gigantic hare, surrounded by a 
court of quadrupeds ; sometimes he appears in human 
shape, majestic in stature and wondrous in endowment, 
a mighty magician, a destroyer of serpents and evil 
raanitous ; sometimes he is a vain and treacherous imp, 
full of childish whims and petty trickery, the butt and 
victim of men, beasts, and spirits. His powers of trans- 
formation are without limit ; his curiosity and malice 
are insatiable ; and of the numberless legends of which 
he is the hero, the greater part are as trivial as they are 
incoherent.! It does not appear that Manabozho was 
ever an object of worship ; yet, despite his absurdity, 
tradition declares him to be chief among the manitous, 
in short, the "Great Spirit."^ It was he who restored 



1 Mr. Schoolcraft has collected many of these tales. See his Algic 
Researches, Vol. I. Compare the stories of Messou, given by Le Jeune 
(Relations, 1633, 1634), and the account of Nanabush, by Edwin James, 
In his notes to Tanner's Narrative of Captivity and Adventures during a 
Thirty-Years' Residence among the Indians; also the account of the Great 
Ilarr, in the Memoire of Nicolas Perrot, Chaps. I., II. 

2 " Presque toutes les Nations Algonquines ont donne le nom de 
Grand Lieorenw.'PTQva.iQ'c Esprit, quelques-uns 1 'appellent il/jcAafiow (Mana- 
bozho)." — Charlevoix, Journal Historique, 841. 



THE DELUGE. Ixxiii 

the world, submerged by a deluge. He was hunting in 
company with a certain wolf, who was his brother, or, 
by other accounts, his grandson, when his quadruped 
relative fell through the ice of a frozen lake, and was at 
once devoured by certain serpents lurking in the depths 
of the waters. Manabozho, intent on revenge, trans- 
formed himself into the stump of a tree, and by this 
artifice surprised and slew the king of the serpents, as 
he basked with his followers in the noontide sun. The 
serpents, who were all manitous, caused, in their rage, 
the waters of the lake to deluge the earth. Manabozho 
climbed a tree, which, in answer to his entreaties, grew 
as the flood rose around it, and thus saved him from the 
vengeance of the evil spirits. Submerged to the neck, 
he looked abroad on the waste of waters, and at length 
descried the bird known as the loon, to whom he appealed 
for aid in the task of restoring the world. The loon 
dived in search of a little mud, as material for recon- 
struction, but could not reach the bottom. A musk-rat 
made the same attempt, but soon reappeared floating on 
his back, and apparently dead. Manabozho, however, 
on searching his paws, discovered in one of them a par- 
ticle of the desired mud, and of this, together with the 
body of the loon, created the world anew.^ 

There are various forms of this tradition, in some of 
which Manabozho appears, not as the restorer, but as 
the creator of the world, forming mankind from the car- 
casses of beasts, birds, and fishes.^ Other stories repre- 

1 This is a form of the story still current among the remoter Algon- 
yuins. Compare the story of Messou, in Le Jemie, Relation, 1633, 16. 
It is substantially the same. 

2 In the beginning of all things, Manabozho, in the form of the Great 
Hare, was on a raft, surrounded by animals who acknowledged him as 
their chief. No land could be seen. Anxious to create tlie world, the 
Great Hare persuaded the beaver to dive for mu5 but the adventurous 

P 



Ixxiv INTRODUCTION. 

sent him as marrying a female musk-rat, by vfhom he 
became the progenitor of the human race.^ 

Searching for some higher conception of supernatural 
existence, we find, among a portion of the primitive 
Algonquins, traces of a vague belief in a spirit dimly 
shadowed forth under the name of Atahocan, to whom 
it does not appear that any attributes were ascribed or 
any worship offered, and of whom the Indians professed 
to know nothing whatever ; ^ but there is no evidence that 
this belief extended beyond certain tribes of tlie Lower 
St. Lawrence. Others saw a supreme manitou in the 
Sun.^ The Algonquins believed also in' a malignant 
manitou, in whom the early missionaries failed not to 
recognize the Devil, but who was far less dreaded than 
his wife. She wore a robe made of the hair of her 
victims, for she was tlie cause of deatli ; and she it was 

diver floated to the surface senseless. The otter next tried, and failed 
like his predecessor. The musk-rat now otTered himself for the desperate 
task. He plunjjed, and, after remaining a day and night beneath the 
surface, reappeared, floating on his back beside the raft, apparently dead, 
and with all his paws fast closed. On opening them, the other animals 
found in one of them a grain of sand, and of this the Great Hare created 
the world. — Perrot, Me'moire, Chap. I. 

1 Le Jeune, Relation, 1633, 16. — The musk-rat is always a conspicuous 
figure in Algonquin cosmogony. 

It is said that Messou, or Manabozho, once gave to an Indian the gift 
of immortality, tied in a bundle, enjoining him never to open it. The 
Indian's wife, however, impelled by curiosity, one day cut the string, 
tlie precious gift flew out, and Indians have ever since been subject to 
death. — Le Jeune, Relation, 1634, 13. 

'^ Li; Jeune, Relation, 1638, 16 ; Relation, 1634, 13. 

3 Biard, Relation, 1611, Chap. VIII. — This beUef was very prevalent. 
The Ottawas, according to Ragueneau {Relation des Hiii-ons, 1648, 77), were 
accustomed to invoke the " Maker of Heaven " at their feasts ; but they 
recognized as distinct persons the Maker of the Earth, the Maker of Win- 
ter, the God of the Waters, and the Seven Spirits of the Wind. He says, at 
the same time, " The people of these coimtries have received from their 
ancestors no'knowledge of a God " ; and he adds, that there is no S8nti« 
iiient of religion in this invocation. 



ATAENTSIC. IxxV 

whom, by yelling, drumming, and stamping, they sought 
to drive away from the sick. Sometimes, at night, she 
was seen by some terrified squaw in the forest, in shape 
like a flame of fire ; and when the vision was announced 
to the circle crouched around the lodge-fire, they burned 
a fragment of meat to appease the female fiend. 

The East, the West, the North, and the South were 
vaguely personified as spirits or manitous. Some of the 
winds, too, were personal existences. The West-Wind, 
as we have seen, was father of Manabozho. There was 
a Summer-Maker and a Winter-Maker ; and the Indians 
tried to keep the latter at bay by throwing firebrands 
into the air. 

When we turn from the Algonquin family of tribes to 
that of the Iroquois, we find another cosmogony, and 
other conceptions of spiritual existence. While the 
earth was as yet a waste of waters, there was, according 
to Iroquois and Huron traditions, a heaven with lakes, 
streams, plains, and forests, inhabited by animals, by 
spirits, and, as some affirm, by human beings. Here a 
certain female spirit, named Ataentsic, was once chas- 
ing a bear, which, slipping through a hole, fell down to 
the earth. Ataentsic's dog followed, when she herself, 
struck with despair, jumped after them. Others declare 
that she was kicked out of heaven by the spirit, her 
husband, for an amour with a man ; while others, again, 
hold tlie belief that she fell in the attempt to gather for 
her husband the medicinal leaves of a certain tree. Be 
this as it may, the animals swimming in the watery waste 
below saw her falling, and hastily met in council to deter- 
mine what should be done. The case was referred to 
the beaver. The beaver commended it to the judgment 
of the tortoise, who thereupon called on the other animals 
to dive, bring up mud, and place it on his back. Thus 



Ixxvi INTRODUCTION. 

was formed a floating island, on which Ataentsic fell; 
and here, being pregnant, she was soon delivered of a 
daughter, who in turn bore two boys, whose paternity 
is unexplained. They were called Taouscaron and 
Jouskeha, and presently fell to blows, Jouskeha killing 
his brother with the horn of a stag. The back of the 
tortoise grew into a world full of verdure and life ; and 
Jouskeha, with his grandmother, Ataentsic, ruled over 
its destinies.^ 

He is the Sun ; she is the Moon. He is beneficent ; 
but she is malignant, like the female demon of the Algon- 
quins. They have a bark house, made like tliose of the 
Iroquois, at the end of the earth, and they often come 
to feasts and dances in the Indian villages. Jouskeha 
raises corn for himself, and makes plentiful harvests for 
mankind. Sometimes he is seen, thin as a skeleton, 
with a spike of shrivelled corn in his hand, or greedily 
gnawing a human limb ; and then the Indians know tliat 
a grievous famine awaits them. He constantly interposes 
between mankind and the malice of his wicked grand- 
mother, whom, at times, he soundly cudgels. It was he 

1 The above is the version of the story given by BrelDeuf, Relation 
des Hurons, 1036, 86 (Cramoisy). No two Indians told it precisely 
alilie, though nearly all the Hurons and Iroquois agreed as to its es 
seutial points. Compare Vanderdonck, Cusick, Sagard, and other writ 
ers. According to Vanderdonck, Ataentsic became mother of a deer, 
a bear, and a wolf, by whom she afterwards bore all the other animals, 
mankind included. Bre'beuf found also among the Hurons a tradition 
inconsistent with that of Ataentsic, and bearing a trace of Algonquin 
origin. It declares, that, in the beginning, a man, a fox, and a skunk 
found tlaemselves together on an island, and that the man made the 
world out of mud brought him by the skunk. 

The Delawares, an Algonquin tribe, seem to have borrowed some- 
wliat of the Iroquois cosmogony, since they believed that the earth was 
formed on the back of a tortoise. 

According to some, Jouskeha became the father of the human race ; 
but, in the third generation, a deluge destroyed his posterity, so that il 
was necessary to transform animals into men. — Charlevoix, ] II. 345 



JOUSKEHA. Ixxvii 

who made lakes and streams : for once the earth was 
parched and barren, all the water being gathered under 
the armpit of a colossal frog ; but Jouskeha pierced the 
armpit, and let out the water. No prayers were offered to 
him, his benevolent nature rendering them superfluous.^ 
The early writers call Jouskeha the creator of the 
world, and speak of him as corresponding to the vaguo 
Algonquin deity, Atahocan. Another deity appears in 
Iroquois mythology, with equal claims to be regarded as 
supreme. He is called Areskoui, or Agreskoui, and his 
most prominent attributes are those of a god of war. 
He was often invoked, and the flesh of animals and of 
captive enemies was burned' in his honor .^ Like Jous- 
keha, he was identified with the sun ; and he is perhaps 
to be regarded as the same being, under different attri- 
butes. Among the Iroquois proper, or Five Nations, 
there was also a divinity called Tarenyowagon, or Teha- 
ronhiawagon,^ whose place and character it is very diffi- 
cult to determine. In some traditions he appears as 
the son of Jouskeha. He had a prodigious influence ; 
for it was he who spoke to men in dreams. The Five 
Nations recognized still another superhuman personage, 
— plainly a deified chief or hero. This was Taounya- 
watha, or Hiawatha, said to be a divinely appointed 
messenger, who made his abode on earth for the political 
and social instruction of the chosen race, and whose 

1 Compare Brebeuf, as before cited, and Sagard, Voyage des Uurons, 
p. 228. 

2 Father Jogues saw a female prisoner burned to Areskoui, and two 
bears offered to him to atone for the sin of not burning more captives. — 
Leitre de Jogues, 5 Aug., 1643. 

3 Le Mercier, Relation, 1670, 66; Dablon, Relation, 1671, 17. Com 
pare Cusick, Megapolensis, and Vanderdonck. Some writers identify 
Tarenyowagon and Hiawatha. Vanderdonck assumes that Areskoui is 
tlie Devil, and Tarenyowagon is God. Thus Indian notions are often 
interpreted by the light of preconceived ideas. 

g* 



Ixxviii INTBODUCTIOK 

counterpart is to be found in the traditions of the Peru- 
vians, Mexicans, and other primitive nations.^ 

Close examination makes it evident that the primitive 
Indian's idea of a Supreme Being was a conception no 
higher tlian miglit have been expected. The moment he 
began to coiitempUite this object of liis faith, and sought 
to clotlie it with attributes, it became finite, and com- 
monly ridiculous. The Creator of the World stood on 
the level of a barbarous and degraded humanity, while 
a natural tendency became apparent to look beyond him 
to other powers sharing his dominion. The Indian 
belief, if developed, would have developed into a system 
of polytheism.^ 

In the primitive Indian's conception of a God the idea 
of moral good has no part. His deity does not dispense 
justice for this world or the next, but leaves mankind 
under the power of subordinate spirits, who fill and 
control the universe. Nor is the good and evil of these 
inferior beings a moral good and evil. The good spirit 
is the sjtirit that gives good luck, and ministers to the 
necessities and desires of mankind: the evil spirit is 

1 For tlie tradition of Hiawatha, see Clark, History of Omndagn, I. 21. 
It will also be found in Schoolcraft's Notes on tlie Iroquois, and in his Ilis- 
tory, Cunditiu)!, and Prospects of Indian Tribes. 

The Iroquois name for God is Ilawenniio, sometimes written 
Owaj'neo; but this use of the word is wlioUy due to the missionaries. 
Haweiniiio is an Iroquois verb, and means, he rules, he is muster. There 
is no Iroquois word which, in its ])rimitive meaning, can he interpreted, 
the Great Spirit, or God. On this subject, see Etudes Phi/oloj/ii/ues sur 
queJques Lan;/ues Saumt/es (Montreal, 18GG), where will also be found a 
curious exposure of a few of Schoolcraft's ridiculous blunders in this 
connection. 

^ Some of the early writers could discover no trace of belief in a 
supreme spirit of any kind. I'errot, after a life spent among the Indians, 
ignores such an idea. AUouez empliatically denies that it existed among 
the tribes of Lake Superior. (Relation, 1(567, 11.) He adds, however, 
that the Sacs and Foxes believed in a great ge'nie, who lived not liar froro 
tlie French settlements. — Ibid., 21. 



THE GREAT SPIRIT. Ixxix 

simply a malicious agent of disease, death, and mis- 
chance. 

In no Indian language could the early missionaries 
find a word to express the idea of God. Manitou and 
Oki meant anything endowed with supernatural powei's, 
from a snake-skin, or a greasy Indian conjurer, up to 
Manabozho and Jouskeha. Tlie priests were forced to 
use a circumlocution, — "The Great Chief of Men," or 
" He who lives in the Sky." ^ Yet it should seem that 
the idea of a supreme controlling spirit might naturally 
arise from the peculiar character of Indian belief. The 
idea that each race of animals has its archetype or 
chief would easily suggest the existence of a supreme 
chief of the spirits or of the human race, — a conception 
imperfectly shadowed forth in Manabozho. The Jesuit 
missionaries seized this advantage. " If each sort of 
animal has its king," they urged, " so, too, have men ; 
and as man is above all the animals, so is the spirit 
that rules over men the master of all the other spirits." 
The Indian mind readily accepted the idea, and tribes 
in no sense Christian quickly rose to the belief in 
one controlling spirit. The Great Spirit became a dis- 
tinct existence, a pervading power in the universe, and 
a dispenser of justice. Many tribes now pray to him, 
though still clinging obstinately to their ancient super- 
stitions ; and with some, as the heathen portion of the 
modern Iroquois, he is clothed with attributes of moral 
good.2 

1 See " Divers Sentimens," appended to the Relation of 1635, § 27 ; and 
also many otlier passages of early missionaries. 

'■^ In studying tlie writers of tlie last and of tlie present century, it is 
to be remembered that their observations were made upon savages who 
had been for generations in contact, immediate or otherwise, with the 
doctrines of Christianity. Many observers have interpreted the religious 
ideas of the Indians after preconceived ideas of their own ; and it may 



IXXX INTRODUCTION. 

The primitive Indian believed in the immortality of 
the soul,i but he did not always believe in a state of 
future reward and punishment. Nor, when such a belief 
existed, was the good to be rewarded a moral good, or 
the evil to be punished a moral evil. Skilful hunters, 
brave warriors, men of influence and consideration, went, 
after death, to the happy hunting-ground ; while the sloth- 
ful, the cowardly, and the weak were doomed to eat ser- 
pents and ashes in dreary regions of mist and darkness. 
In the general belief, however, there was but one land of 
shades for all alike. The spirits, in form and feature as 
they had been in life, weuded tlieir way through dark 
forests to the villages of the dead, subsisting on bark and 
rotten wood. On arriving, they sat all day in the crouch- 
ing posture of tlie sick, and, when night came, hunted 



nafely be affirmed that an Indian will respond with a grunt of acquies 
cence to any question whatever touching his spiritual state. Loskiel and 
the simple-minded Heckewelder write from a missionary point of view ; 
Adair, to support a theory of descent from tlie Jews ; the worthy theo- 
logian, Jarvis, to maintain his dogma, that all religious ideas of the heathen 
world are perversions of revelation ; and so, in a greater or less degree, 

iof many others. By far the most close and accurate observers of Indian 
superstition were the French and Italian Jesuits of the first half of the 
seventeenth cent>iry. Their opportunities were unrivalled ; and they 
used them in a spirit of faithful inquiry, accumulating facts, and leaving 
theory to their successors. Of recent American writers, no one has 
given so much attention to the subject as Mr. Schoolcraft ; but, in view 
of his opportunities and his zeal, his results are most unsatisfactory. 
The work in six large quarto volumes. History, Condition, and Prospects 
of Indian Tribes, published by Government under his editorship, includes 
the substance of most of his previous writings. It is a singularly crude 
and illiterate production, stuffed with blunders and contradictions, giv- 
ing evidence on every page of a striking unfitness either for }jistorical or 
pliilosophical inquiry, and taxing to the utmost the patience of those 
who would extract what is valuable in it from its oceans of pedantic 
verbiage. 

1 The exceptions are exceedingly rare. Father Gravier says that a 
Peoria Indian once told him that there was no future life. It would be 
difficult to find another instance of the kind. 



THE JOURNEY OF THE DEAD. Ixxxi 

the shades of animals, with the shades of bows and 
arrows, among the shades of trees and rocks: for all 
things, animate and inanimate, were alike immortal, and 
all passed together to the gloomy country of the dead. 

The belief respecting the land of souls varied greatly 
in different tribes and different individuals. Among the 
Hurons there were those who held that departed spirits 
pursued thoiv journey through the sky, along the Milky 
Way, whiJi the souls of dogs took another route, by cer- 
tain consloLations, known as the " Way of the Dogs.''^ 

At intervals of ten or twelve years, the Hurons, the 
Neutrals, and other kindred tribes, were accustomed to 
collect the bones of their dead, and deposit them, with 
great ceremony, in a common place of burial. The whole 
nation was sometimes assembled at this solemnity ; and 
hundreds of corpses, brought from their temporary rest- 
ing-places, were inhumed in one capacious pit. Prom 
this hour the immortality of their souls began. They 
took wing, as some affirmed, in the shape of pigeons ; 
while the greater number declared that they journeyed 
on foot, and in their own likeness, to the land of shades, 
bearing with them the ghosts of the wampum-belts, bea- 
ver-skins, bows, arrows, pipes, kettles, beads, and rings 
buried with them in the common grave.^ But as the 
spirits of the old and of children are too feeble for the 
march, they are forced to stay behind, lingering near 
their earthly villages, where the living often hear the 
shutting of their invisible cabin-doors, and the weak 

^ Sagard, Voyage des Hurons, 233. 

2 The practice of burying treasures with the dead is not peculiar to 
the North American aborigines. Thus, the London Times of Oct. 28, 
1865, describing the funeral rites of Lord Palmerston, says : " And as 
the words, 'Dust to dust, ashes to ashes,' were pronounced, the chiei 
mourner, as a last precious offering to the dead, threw into the grave 
several diamond and gold rings." 



Ixxxii INTRODUCTION 

voices of the disembodied cliildren driving birds from 
their corn-fields.^ An endless variety of incoherent fan- 
cies is connected with the Indian idea of a future life. 
They commonly owe their origin to dreams, often to tho 
dreams of those in extreme sickness, who, on awaking, 
supposed that they had visited the other world, and relat 
ed to the wondering bystanders what they had seen. 

The Indian land of souls is not always a region of 
shadows and gloom. The Hurons sometimes represented 
the souls of their dead — those of their dogs included — 
as dancing joyously in the presence of Ataentsic and 
Jouskeha. According to some Algonquin traditions, 
heaven was a scene of endless festivity, the ghosts dan- 
cing to the sound of the rattle and the drum, and greet- 
ing with hospitable welcome the occasional visitor from 
the living world : for tKj spirit-land was not far off, 
and roving hunters sometimes passed its confines un 
awares. 

Most of the traditions agree, however, that the spirits, 
on their journey heavenward, were beset with difficulties 
and perils. There was a swift river which must bo 
crossed on a log that shook beneath their feet, while a 
ferocious dog opposed their passage, and drove many into 
the abyss. This river was full of sturgeon and other 
fish, which the ghosts speared for their subsistence. Be- 
yond was a narrow path between moving rocks, which 
each instant crashed together, grinding to atoms the less 
nimble of the pilgrims who 'essayed to pass. The Hurons 
believed that a personage named Oscotarach, or the Head- 
Piercer, dwelt in a bark house beside the path, and that 
it was his office to remove the brains from the heads of 
all who went by, as a necessary preparation for immor- 

1 Br^euf, Relation des Hurons, 1636, 99 (Cramoisy). 



DREAMS. Ixxxiii 

tality. This singular idea is found also in some Algon- 
quin traditions, according to which, however, the brain is 
afterwards restored to its owner.^ 

Dreams were to the Indian a universal oracle. They 
revealed to him his guardian spirit, taught him the cure 
of his diseases, warned him of the devices of sorcerers, 
guided him to the lurking-places of his enemy or the 
haunts of game, and unfolded the secrets of good and 
evil destiny. The dream was a mysterious and inexora- 
ble power, whose least behests must be obeyed to the 
letter, — a source, in every Indian town, of endless mis- 
chief and abomination. There were professed dreamers, 
and professed interpreters of dreams. One of the most 
noted festivals among the Hurons and Iroquois was the 
Dream Feast, a scene of frenzy, where the actors counter- 

1 On Indian ideas of another life, compare Sagard, the Jesuit Rela- 
tions, Perrot, Charlevoix, and Lafitau, with Tanner, James, Schoolcraft, 
and the Appendix to Morse's Indian Report. 

Le Clerc recounts a singular story, current in his time among the 
Algonquins of Gaspe and Northern New Brunswick. The favorite son 
of an old Indian died ; whereupon the father, with a party of friends, set 
out for the land of souls to recover him. It was only necessary to wade 
through a shallow lake, several days' journey in extent. This they did, 
sleeping at night on platforms of poles which supported them above the 
water. At length they arrived, and were met by Papkootparout, the In- 
dian Pluto, who rushed on them in a rage, with his war-club upraised ; 
but, presently relenting, changed his mind, and challenged them to a 
game of ball. They proved the victors, and won the stakes, consisting 
of corn, tobacco, and certain fruits, which thus became known to man- 
kind. The bereaved father now begged hard for his son's soul, and Pap- 
kootparout at last gave it to him, in the form and size of a nut, which, 
by pressing it hard between his hands, he forced into a small leather bag. 
The delighted parent carried it back to earth, with instructions to insert 
it in the body of his son, who would thereupon return to life. When the 
adventurers reached home, and reported the happy issue of their journey, 
there was a dance of rejoicing ; and the father, wishing to take part in it, 
gave his son's soul to the keeping of a squaw who stood by. Being 
curious to see it, she opened the bag ; on which it escaped at once, and 
took flight for the realms of Papkootparout, preferring them to the abodes 
of the living. — Le Clerc, Nouvelle Relation de la Gasp€sie, 310-328. 



Ixxxiv INTRODUCTION. 

felted madness, and tlie town was like a bedlam turned 
loose. Each pretended to have dreamed of something 
necessary to his welfare, and rushed from house to house, 
demanding of all he met to guess his secret requirement 
and satisfy it. 

Believing that the wliole material world was instinct 
with powers to influence and control his fate, that good 
and evil spirits, and existences nameless and indefinable, 
filled all Nature, that a pervading sorcery was above, 
below, and around him, and that issues of life and death 
might be controlled by instruments the most unnoticeable 
and seemingly the most feeble, the Indian lived in per- 
petual fear. The turning of a leaf, the crawling of an 
insect, the cry of a bird, the creaking of a bough, might 
be to him the mystic signal of weal or woe. 

An Indian community swarmed with sorcerers, med- 
icine-men, and diviners, whose functions were often 
united in the same person. The sorcerer, by charms, 
magic songs, magic feasts, and the beating of his drum, 
had power over the spirits and those occult influences 
inherent in animals and inanimate things. He could call 
to him the souls of his enemies. They appeared before 
him in the form of stones. He chopped and bruised 
them with his hatchet ; blood and flesh issued forth ; 
and the intended victim, however distant, languished and 
died. Like the sorcerer of the Middle Ages, he made 
images of those he wished to destroy, and, muttering in- 
cantations, punctured them with an awl, whereupon the 
persons represented sickened and pined away. 

Tlie Indian doctor relied far more on magic than on 
natural remedies. Dreams, beating of the drum, songs, 
magic feasts and dances, and howling to frighten the fe- 
male demon from his patient, were his ordinary methods 
of cure. 



SACRIFICES. IXXXV " 

The propliet, or diviner, had various means of read- 
ing the secrets of futurity, such as the flight of birds, 
and the movements of water and fire, Tliere was a 
peculiar practice of divination very general in the Algon- 
quin family of tribes, among some of whom it still sub-r 
sists. A small, conical lodge was made by planting 
poles in a circle, lashing the tops together at the height 
of about seven feet from the ground, and closely covering 
them with hides. The prophet crawled in, and closed 
the aperture after him. He then beat his drum and 
sang his magic songs to summon the spirits, whose weak, 
shrill voices were soon heard, mingled with his lugubri- 
ous chanting, while at intervals the juggler paused to 
interpret their communications to the attentive crowd 
seated on the ground without. During the whole scene, 
the lodge swayed to and fro with a violence which has 
astonished many a civilized beholder, and which some of 
the Jesuits explain by the ready solution of a genuine 
diabolic intervention .^ 

The sorcerers, medicine-men, and diviners did not 
usually exercise the function of priests. Each man sac- 
rificed for himself to the powers he wished to propitiate, 
whether his guardian spirit, the spirits of animals, or the 
other beings of his belief. The most common offering 
was tobacco, thrown into the fire or water; scraps of 
meat were sometimes burned to the manitous ; and, on a 
few rare occasions of public solemnity, a white dog, the 
mystic animal of many tribes, was tied to the end of an 
upright pole, as a sacrifice to some superior spirit, or to 



1 This practice was first observed by Champlain. (See "Pioneers of 
f 'ranee in the New World.") From his time to the present, numerous 
writers have remarked upon it. Le Jeune, in the Relation of 1637, treats 
it at some length. The lodge was sometimes of a cylindrical, instead of a 
conical form. 

h 



IxXXvi INTRODUCTION. 

the sun, with which the superior spirits were tonstantly 
confounded hj the primitive Indian. In recent times, 
when Judaism and Christianity have modified his relig- 
ious ideas, it has been, and still is, the practice to sacri- 
fice dogs to the Great Spirit. On these public occasions, 
tlie sacrificial function is discharged by chiefs, or by war- 
riors appointed for the purpose.^ 

Among the Hurons and Iroquois, and indeed all the 
stationary tribes, there was an incredible number of 
mystic ceremonies, extravagant, puerile, and often dis- 
gusting, designed for tlie cure of the sick or for the 
general weal of the community. Most of their observ- 
ances seem originally to have been dictated by dreams, 
and transmitted as a sacred heritage from generation to 
generation. They consisted in an endless variety of 
dances, masqueradings, and nondescript orgies ; and a 
scrupulous adherence to all the traditional forms was 
held to be of the last moment, as the slightest failure in 
tliis respect might entail serious calamities. If children 
were seen in their play imitating any of these mysteries, 
tliey were grimly rebuked and punished. In many tribes 
secret magical societies existed, and still exist, into which 

1 Many of the Indian feasts were feasts bf sacrifice, — sometimes to 
the guardian spirit of the host, sometimes to an animal of which he has 
dreamed, sometimes to a local or other spirit. The food was first offered 
ill a loud voice to the beino: to he propitiated, after which the guests 
proceeded to devour it for him. This unique method of sacrifice was 
practised at war-feasts and similar solemnities. For an excellent account 
of Indian religious feasts, see Perrot, Chap. V. 

One of the most remarkable of Indian sacrifices was that practised 
by the Hurons in the case of a person drowned or frozen to death. The 
flesh of the deceased was cut off, and thrown into a fire made for the pur- 
pose, as an offering of propitiation to the spirits of the air or water. 
What remained of the body was then buried near the fire. — Brebeuf, 
Relation des Hurons, 1636, 108. 

The tribes of Virginia, as described by Beverly and others, not only 
had priests who offered sacrifice, but idols and houses of worship. 



TRADITIONARY TALES. Ixxxvil 

members are initiated with peculiar ceremonies. These 
associations are greatly respected and feared. They have 
charms for love, war, and private revenge, and exert a 
great, and often a very mischievous influence. The soci- 
eties of the Metai and the Wabeno, among the Northern 
Algonquins, are conspicuous examples ; while other soci- 
eties of similar character have, for a century, been known 
to exist among the Dahcotah.^ 

A notice of the superstitious ideas of the Indians 
would be imperfect without a reference to the tradi- 
tionary tales through which these ideas are handed down 
from father to son. Some of these tales can be traced 
back to the period of the earliest intercourse with Euro- 
peans. One at least of those recorded by the first mis- 
sionaries, on the Lower St. Lawrence, is still current 
among the tribes of the Upper Lakes. Many of them 
are curious combinations of beliefs seriously entertained 
with strokes intended for humor and drollery, which 
never fail to awaken peals of laughter in the lodge-circle. 
Giants, dwarfs, cannibals, spirits, beasts, birds, and anom- 
alous monsters, transformations, tricks, and sorcery, form 
the staple of the story. Some of the Iroquois tales em- 
body conceptions which, however preposterous, are of a 
bold and striking character ; but those of the Algonquins 
are, to an incredible degree, flimsy, silly, and meaning- 
less ; nor are those of the Dahcotah tribes much better. 
In respect to this, wigwam lore, there is a curious super- 
stition of very wide prevalence. The tales must not be 
told in summer ; since at that season, when all Nature is 
full of life, the spirits are awake, and, hearing what is 
said of them, may take offence; whereas in winter they 

1 The Friendly Society of the Spirit, of which the initiatory ceremo- 
nies were seen and described by Carver (Travels, 271), preserves to this 
day its existence and its rites. 



IxXXViii INTRODUCTION. 

are fast sealed up in snow and ice, and no longer capable 
of listening.! 

It is obvious tliat the Indian mind has never seriously 
occupied itself with any of the liiglier themes of tliought. 
The beings of its belief are not impersonations of the 
forces of Nature, the courses of human destiny, or the 
movements of human intellect, will, and passion. In 
the midst of Nature, the Indian knew nothing of her 
laws. His perpetual reference of her phenomena to 
occult agencies forestalled inquiry and precluded induc- 
tive reasoning. If the wind blew with violence, it was 
because the water-lizard, which makes the wind, had 
crawled out of his pool ; if the lightning was sharp and 
frequent, it was because the young of the thunder-bird 
were restless in their nest ; if a blight fell upon the corn, 
it was because the Corn Spirit was angry ; and if the 
beavers were shy and difficult to catch, it was because 

1 The prevalence of this fancy among the Algonquins in the remote 
parts of Canada is well established. The writer found it also among the 
extreme western bands of tiie Dahcotah. He tried, in the month of July, 
to persuade an old chief, a noted story-teller, to tell him some of the 
tales ; but, though abundantly loquacious in respect to his own adven- 
tures, and even his dreams, the Indian obstinately refused, saying that 
winter was the time for the tales, and that it was bad to tell them in 
summer. 

Mr. Schoolcraft has published a collection of Algonquin tales, under 
the title of Atgic Researches. Most of them were translated by his wife, 
an educated Ojibwa half-breed. This book is perhaps the best of Mr. 
Schoolcraft's works, though its value is much impaired by the want of a 
literal rendering, and tlie introduction of decorations which savor more 
of a popular monthly magazine than of an Indian wigwam. Mrs. East- 
man's interesting Legends of the Sioux (Dahcotah) is not free from the 
same defect. Other tales are scattered throughout the works of Mr. 
Schoolcraft and various modern writers. Some are to be found in the 
works of Lafitau and the other Jesuits. But few of the Iroquois legends 
have been printed, though a considerable number have been written down. 
The singular History of the Five Nations, by the old Tuscarora Indian, 
Cusick, gives the substance of some of them. Others will be found in 
Clark's History of Onondaga. 



RESl'LTS. Ixxxix 

they had taken offence at seeing the bones of one of their 
race thrown to a dog. Well, and even highly developed, 
in a few instances, — I alhide especially to the Iroquois, 
— with respect to certain points of material concernment, 
the mind of the Indian in other respects was and is 
almost hopelessly stagnant. The very traits that raise 
hiin above the servile races are hostile to the kind and 
degree of civilization which those races so easily attain. 
His intractable spirit of independence, and the pride 
which forbids him to be an imitator, reinforce but too 
strongly that savage lethargy of mind from which it is so 
hard to rouse him. No race, perhaps, ever offered greater 
difficulties to those laboring for its improvement. 

To sum up the results of this examination, the primi- 
tive Indian was as savage in his religion as in his life. 
He was divided between fetich-worship and that next 
degree of religious development which consists in the 
worship of deities embodied in the human form. His 
conception of their attributes was such as might have 
been expected. His gods were no whit better than him- 
self. Even when he borrows from Christianity the idea 
of a Supreme and Universal Spirit, his tendency is to 
reduce Him to a local habitation and a bodily shape ; and 
this tendency disappears only in tribes that have been 
long in contact with civilized white men. The primitive 
Indian, yielding his untutored homage to One All-per- 
vading and Omnipotent Spirit, is a dream of poets, rliet 
oricians, and sentimentalists. 



JESUITS IN NOETH AMERICA. 



TllE 



JESUITS m NORTH AMERICA. 



CHAPTER I. 

1634. 
NOTRE-DA]ME DES ANGES. 

Qttebec in 1634. — Father Lb Jethste. — The Mission-House, — Its 
Domestic Economy. — The Jesuits and their Designs. 

Opposite Quebec lies the tongue of land called 
Point Levi. One who, in the summer of the year 
1634, stood on its margin and looked northward, 
across the St. Lawrence, would have seen, at the 
distance of a mile or more, a range of lofty cliffs, 
rising on the left into the bold heights of Cape Dia- 
mond, and on the right sinking abruptly to the bed 
of the tributary river St. Charles. Beneath these 
cliffs, at the brink of the St. Lawrence, he would 
have descried a cluster of warehouses, sheds, and 
wooden tenements. Immediately above, along the 
verge of the precipice, he could have traced the 
outlines of a fortified work, with a flagstaff, and a 
few small cannon to command the river; while, at 
the only point where l^ature had made the heights 
accessible, a zigzag path connected the warehouses 
and the fort. 

1 



2 NOTRE-DA]\IE DES ANGES. [1634. 

'Now,, embarked in the canoe of some Monta- 
gnais Indian, let him cross the St. Lawrence, land 
at the pier, and, passing the cluster of buildings, 
climb the pathway up the cliif. Pausing for rest 
and breath, he might see, ascending and descend- 
ing, the tenants of this outpost of the wilderness : 
•a soldier of the fort, or an officer in slouched hat 
and jDlume ; a factor of the fur company, owner and 
sovereign lord of all Canada ; a party of Indians ; 
a trader from the upper country, one of the pre- 
cursors of that hardy race of coureurs de hois, des- 
tmed to form a conspicuous and strikmg feature of 
the Canadian population : next, perhaps, would ap- 
pear a figure widely different. The close, black 
cassock, the rosary hanging from the waist, and 
the wide, black hat, looped up at the sides, pro- 
claimed the Jesuit, — Father Le Jeune, Superior of 
the Residence of Quebec. 

And now, that we may better know the aspect 
and condition of the infant colony and incipient 
mission, we will follow the priest on his way. 
Mountin* the steep path, he reached the top of 
the cliff, some two hundred feet above the river 
and the warehouses. On the left lay the fort built 
by Champlain, covering a part of the ground now 
forming Durham Terrace and the Place d'Ai-mes. 
Its ramparts were of logs and earth, and within 
was a turreted building of stone, used as a barrack, 
as officers' quarters, and for other purposes.^ Near 
the fort stood a small chapel, newly built. The 

1 Compare the various notices in Champlain (1632) with that of Du 
Creux Historia Canadensis, 204. 



1634.] QUEBEC IN 1634. 3 

surrounding country was cleared and partially cul- 
tivated; yet only one dwelling-house worthy the 
nkme appeared. It was a substantial cottage, where 
lived Madame Hebert, widow of the first settler 
of Canada, with her daughter, her son-in-law Cou- 
illard, and their children, good Catholics all, who, 
two years before, when Quebec was evacuated by 
the English,^ wept for joy at beholding Le Jeune, 
aigid his brother Jesuit, De IS'oue, crossmg their 
threshold to offer beneath their roof the long-for- 
bidden sacrifice of the Mass. There were mclos- 
ures with cattle near at hand ; and the house, with 
its surroundings, betokened uidustry and thrift. 

Thence Le Jeune walked on, across the site of 
the modern market-place, and still onward, near 
the line of the cliffs which sank abruptly on his 
right. Beneath lay the mouth of the St. Charles ; 
and, beyond, the wilderness shore of Beauport 
swept in a wide curve eastward, to where, far in 
the distance, the Gulf of Montmorenci yawned on 
the great river.^ The priest soon passed the clear- 
ings, and entered the woods which covered the 
site of the present suburb of St. John. Thence he 
descended to a lower plateau, where now lies the 
suburb of St. Roch, and, still advancing, reached a 
pleasant spot at the extremity of the Pointe-aux- 
Lievres, a tract of meadow land nearly inclosed 

1 See "Pioneers of France in tlie New World." Heljert's cottage 
seems to have stood between Ste.-Famille and Couillard Streets, as ap- 
pears by a contract of 1634, cited by M. Ferland. 

2 The settlement of Beauport was begun this year, or the year follow- 
ing, by the Sieur GifTard, to whom a large tract had been granted here. 
— Langevin, Notes sur les Archives de N, D. de Beauport^ 5. 



4 NOTRE-DAME DES AJSTGES. [1634. 

by a sudden bend of tbe St. Charles. Here lay 
a canoe or skiff; and, paddling across the narrow 
stream, Le Jeune saw on the meadow, two hun- 
dred yards from the bank, a square inclosure 
formed of palisades, like a modern picket fort of 
the Indian frontier.^ Within, this inclosure were 
two buildmgs, one of which had been half burned 
by the English, and was not yet repahed. It served 
as storehouse, stable, workshop, and bakery. Op- 
posite stood the principal building, a structure of 
planks, plastered with mud, and thatched with long, 
grass from the meadows. It consisted of one story, 
a garret, and a cellar, and contained four principal 
rooms, of which one served as chapel, another as 
refectory, another as kitchen, and the foiu'th as a 
lodging for workmen. The furniture of all was 
plain in the extreme. Until the preceding year, 
the chapel had had no other ornament than a 
sheet on which were glued two coarse engravings ; 
but the priests had now decorated their altar with 
an image of a dove representing the Holy Ghost, 
an image of Loyola, another of Xavier, and three 
images of the Vii'gin. Four cells opened from 
the refectory, the largest of which was eight feet 
square. In these lodged six priests, while two lay 

; 
A This must liave been very near the point where the streamlet called 
the River Lairet enters the St. Charles. The place has a triple liislorio 
interest. The wintering-place of Cartier in 1535-6 (see "Pioneers of 
France ") seems to have been here. Here, too, in 1759, Montcalm's bridge 
of boats crossed the St. Charles ; and in a large intrenchment, which 
probably included the site of the Jesuit mission-house, the remnants of 
his shattered army rallied, after their defeat on the Plains of Abraham. — 
See the very curious Narrative of the Chevalier Johnstone, published by 
the Historical Society of Quebec. 



l(.;3-t.] THE JESUITS. 5 

brothers found shelter in the garret. The house 
had been hastily built, eight years before, and now 
leaked in all parts. Such was the Residence of 
Notre-Dame des Anges. Here was nourished the 
germ of a vast enterprise, and this was the cradle 
of the great mission of New France.^ 

Of the six Jesuits gathered in the refectory for 
the evening meal, one was conspicuous among the 
rest, — a tall, strong man, with features that seemed 
carved by Nature for a soldier, but which the men- 
tal habits of years had stamped with the visible 
impress of the priesthood. This was Jean de Bre- 
beuf, descendant of a noble family of Normandy, 
and one of the ablest and most devoted zealots 
whose names stand on the missionary rolls of his 
Order. His companions were Masse, Daniel, 
Davost, De Noue, and the Father Superior, Le 
Jeune. Masse was the same priest who had been 
the companion of Father Biard in the abortive 
mission of Acadia.^ By reason of his useful qual- 
ities, Le Jeune nicknamed him " le Pere Utile." 
At present, his special function w^as the care of 
the pigs and cows, which he kept in the in clos- 
ure around the buildings, lest they should rav- 
age the neighboring fields of rye, larley, wheat, 



1 The aboTe particulars are gathered from the Relations of 1626 (Lale- 
mant), and 1632, 1633, 1634, 1635 (Le Jeune), but chiefly from a long 
letter of the Father Superior to the Provincial of the Jesuits at Paris, 
containing a curiously minute report of the state of the mission. It was 
sent from Quebec by the returning sliips in the summer of 1634, and will 
be found in Carayon, Premiere Mission des Je'suites au Canada, 122. The 
original is in the archives of the Order at Rome. 

2 See "Pioneers of France in the New World." 

1* 



6 NOTEE-DAJME DES ANGES. [1634. 

and maize. ^ De None had charge of the eight 
or ten workmen employed by the mission, who 
gave him at times no Httle trouble by their repin- 
ings and complaints.^ They were forced to hear 
mass every mornmg and prayers every evenmg, 
besides an exhortation on Sunday. Some of them 
were for returning home, while two or three, of a 
difterent complexion, wished to be Jesuits them- 
selves. The Fathers, in their intervals of leisure, 
worked with their men, spade in hand. For the 
rest, they were busied in preaching, singing ves- 
pers, saymg mass and hearmg confessions at the 
fort of Quebec, catechizing a few Indians, and 
striving to master the enormous difficulties of the 
Huron and Algonquin languages. 

Well might Father Le Jeune write to his Su- 
perior, " The harvest is plentiful, and the laborers 
few." These men aimed at the conversion of a 
continent. From their hovel on the St. Charles, 
they surveyed a field of labor whose vastness might 
the the wmgs of thought itself; a scene repellent 
and appalling, darkened with omens of peril and 
woe. They w^ere an advance-guard of the great 
army of Loyola, strong in a discipline that con- 

1 " Le P. Masse, que je nomme quelquefois en riant le Pere Utile, est 
bien cognu de V. H. II a soin des choses domestiques et du bestail q"..e 
nous avons, en quoy il a trfes-bien reussy." — Lettre du P. Paul le Jeune 
au R. P. Provincial, in Carayon, 122. — Le Jeune does not fail to send an 
inventory of the " bestail " to his Superior, namely : " Deux grosses truies 
qui nourissent chacune quatre petits cochons, deux vaches, deux petites 
genisses, et un petit taureau." 

2 The methodical Le Jeune sets down the causes of their discontent 
under six different heads, each duly numbered. Thus : — 

" 1°. C'est le naturel des artisans de se plaindre et de gronder." 
" 2°. La diversite des gages les fait murmurer," etc. 



163i.l PRIESTS OF THE MISSION. 7 

trolled not alone the body and the will, but the 
intellect, the heart, the soul, and the inmost con- 
sciousness. The lives of these early Canadian 
Jesuits attest the earnestness of their faith and 
the intensity of their zeal; but it was a zeal 
bridled, curbed, and ruled by a guiding hand. 
Their marvellous training in equal measure kin- 
dled enthusiasm and controlled it, roused into ac- 
tion a mighty power, and made it as subservient as 
those great material forces which modern science 
has learned to awaken and to govern. They were 
drilled to a factitious humility, prone to fuid utter- 
ance in expressions of self-depreciation and self- 
scorn, which one may often judge unwisely, when 
he condemns them as insincere. They were de- 
voted believers, not only in the fundamental dog- 
mas of Rome, but in those lesser matters of faith 
which heresy despises as idle and puerile supersti- 
tions. One great aim engrossed their lives. " For 
the greater glory of God " — ad majorem Dei glo- 
riam — they would act or wait, dare, suffer, or 
die, yet all in unquestioning subjection to the 
authority of the Superiors, in whom they recog- 
nized the agents of Divine authority itself. 



CHAPTEE II. 

LOYOLA AND THE JESUITS. 

Conversion of Loyola. — Foundation of the Society op Jesits. 
— Preparation of the Novice. — Characteristics of the Or- 
der. — The Canadian Jesuits. 

It was an evil day for new-born Protestantism, 
when a French artilleryman &ed the shot that 
struck down Ignatius Loyola in the breach of 
Pampeluna. A proud noble, an aspiring soldier, a 
graceful courtier, an ardent and daring gallant was 
metamorphosed by that stroke into the zealot whose 
brain engendered and brought forth the mightj 
Society of Jesus. His story is a familiar one : how 
in the solitude of his sick-room, a change came 
over him, upheaving, like an earthquake, all thk 
forces of his nature ; how, in the cave of Manresa. 
the mysteries of Heaven were revealed to him ; how 
he passed from agonies to transports, from trans- 
ports to the calm of a determined purpose. The 
soldier gave himself to a new warfare. In the 
forge of his great intellect, heated, but not dis- 
turbed by the intense fires of his zeal, was wrought 
the prodigious enginery whose power has been felt 

to the uttermost confines of the world. 
[8] 



AIMS OF LOYOLA. 9 

Loyola's training had been in courts and camps : 
of books lie knew little or nothing. He had lived 
in the unquestioning faith of one born and bred 
in the very focus of Romanism ; and thus, at the 
age of about thirty, his conversion found him. It 
was a change of life and purpose, not of belief. 
He presumed not to inquire into the doctrines 
of the Church. It was for him to enforce those 
djctrines; and to this end he turned all the facul- 
ties of his potent intellect, and all his deep knowl- 
edge of mankind. He did not aim to build up 
barren communities of secluded monks, aspuing 
to heaven through prayer, penance, and medita- 
tion, but to subdue the world to the dominion of 
the dogmas which had subdued him ; to organize 
and discipline a mighty host, controlled by one 
purpose and one mind, fired by a quenchless zeal 
or nerved by a fixed resolve, yet impelled, re- 
strained, and directed by a single master hand. 
The Jesuit is no dreamer : he is emphatically a 
man of action; action is the end of his exist- 
ence. 

It was an arduous problem which Loyola under- 
took to solve, — to rob a man of volition, yet to 
preserve in him, nay, to stimulate, those energies 
which would make him the most efiicient instru- 
ment of a great design. To this end the Jesuit 
novitiate and the constitutions of the Order are 
dhected. The enthusiasm of the novice is urgred 
to its intensest pitch ; then, in the name of religion, 
he is summoned to the utter abnegation of intellect 
and will in favor of the Superior, in whom he is 



10 LOYOLA AJ<iT> THE JESUITS. 

commanded to recognize the representative of God 
on earth. Thus the young zealot makes no slav- 
ish sacrifice of intellect and "s^dll ; at least, so he is 
taught : for he sacrifices them, not to man, but to 
his Maker. No hmit is set to his submission: if 
the Superior pronounces black to be white, he is 
bound in conscience to acquiesce.^ 

Loyola's book of Spiritual Exercises is well 
known. In these exercises lies the hard and nar- 
row path which is the only entrance to the Society 
of Jesus. The book is, to all appearance, a dry and 
superstitious formulary ; but, in the hands of a skil- 
ful dkector of consciences, it has proved of terrible 
efficacy. The notice, in solitude and darkness, day 
after day and night after night, ponders its images 
of perdition and despair. lie is taught to hear, in 
imagination, the bowlings of the damned, to see 
then' convulsive agonies, to feel the flames that 
burn without consuming, to smell the corrujotion 
of the tomb and the fumes of the mfernal pit. He 
must picture to himself an array of adverse armies, 
one commanded by Satan on the plains of Babylon, 
one encamped under Christ about the walls of 
Jerusalem ; and the perturbed mind, humbled by 
long contemplation of its own vileness, is ordered 
to enroll itself under one or the other banner. 
Then, the choice made, it is led to a region of 
serenity and celestial peace, and soothed with im- 
ages of divine benignity and grace. These medi- 
tations last, without intermission, about a month, 

1 Those who wish to know the nature of the Jesuit virtue of obedi- 
ence will find it set forth in the famous Letter on Obedience of Loyola 



COISHFESSIOK — DELATION. 11 

and, under an astute and experienced directorship, 
they have been fouiid of such power, that the 
Manual of Spiritual Exercises boasts to have 
saved souls more in number than the letters it 
contains. 

To this succeed two years of discipline and prep- 
aration, directed, above all things else, to perfecting 
the virtues of humility and obedience. The novice 
is obliged to perform the lowest menial offices, and 
the most repulsive duties of the sick-room and the 
hospital ; and he is sent forth, for weeks together, 
to beg his bread like a common mendicant. He is 
requhed to reveal to his confessor, not only his 
sins, but all those hidden tendencies, instincts, and 
impulses which form the distinctive traits of char- 
acter. He is set to watch his comrades, and his 
comrades are set to watch him. Each must report 
what he observes of the acts and dispositions of the 
others ; and this mutual espionage does not end 
with the novitiate, but' extends to the close of 
life. The characteristics of every member of the 
Order are minutely analyzed, and methodically put 
on record. 

This horrible violence to the noblest qualities of 
manhood, joined to that equivocal system of mo- 
rality which eminent casuists of the Order have 
inculcated, must, it may be thought, produce de- 
plorable eifects upon the characters of those under 
its influence. Whether this has been actually the 
case, the reader of history may determine. It is 
certain, however, that the Society of Jesus has 
numbered among its members men whose fervent 



V2 LOYOLA AXD THE JESUITS. 

and exalted natures have been intensified, without 
being abased, by the pressure to which they have 
been subjected. 

It is not for nothing that the Society studies the 
character of its members so intently, and by meth- 
ods so startling. It not only uses its knowledge to 
thrust into obscurity or cast out altogether those 
whom it discovers to be dull, feeble, or unwilling 
instruments of its purposes, but it assigns to every 
one the task to which his talents or his disposition 
may best adapt him : to one, the care of a royal 
conscience, whereby, unseen, his whispered word 
may guide the destiny of nations ; to another, the 
instruction of children ; to another, a career of 
letters or science ; and to the fervent and the 
self-sacrificing, sometimes also to the restless and 
uncompliant, the distant missions to the heathen. 

The Jesuit was, and is, everywhere, — in the 
school-room, in the library, in the cabinets of 
prmces and ministers, in the huts of savages, in 
the tropics, in the frozen North, in India, in China, 
in Japan, in x\frica, in America ; now as a Chris- 
tian priest, now as a soldier, a mathematician, an 
astrologer, a Brahmin, a mandarin, under countless 
disguises, by a thousand arts, luring, persuading, or 
compellmg souls into the fold of Rome. 

Of this vast mechanism for guidmg and govern- 
ing the minds of men, this mighty enginery for 
subduing the earth to the dominion of an idea, this 
harmony of contradictions, this moral Proteus, the 
faintest sketch must now sufiice. A disquisition 
on the Society of Jesus would be without end. 



CANADIAIf JESUITS. 13 

No religious order has ever united in itself so 
much to be admired and so much to be detested. 
Unmixed praise has been poured on its Canadian 
members. It is riot for me to eulogize them, but 
to portray them as they were. 



CHAPTER III. 

1632, 1633. 
PAUL LE JEUNE. 

Le Jeune's Voyage. — IIis First Pupils. — His Studies. — His In- 
dian Teacher. — Winter at the Mission-house. — Le Jeune's 
School. — Reinforcements. 

In another narrative, we have seen how the 
Jesuits, supplanting the RecoUet friars, their pre- 
decessors, had adopted as their own the rugged 
task of Christianizing New France. We have 
seen, too, how a descent of the Enghsh, or rather 
of Huguenots fighting under Enghsh colors, had 
overthrown for a time the miserable little colony, 
with the mission to which it was wedded ; and how 
Quebec was at length restored to France, and the 
broken thread of the Jesuit enterprise resumed.^ 

It was then that Le Jeune had embarked for 
the New World. He was in his convent at Dieppe 
when he received the order to depart ; and he set 
forth in haste for Havre, filled, he assures us, with 
inexpressible joy at the prospect of a living or a 
dying martyrdom. At Rouen he was joined by 
De None, with a lay brother named Gilbert; and 

1 " Pioneers of France." 



1G32.] LE JEimE REACHES CANADA. 15 

the three sailed together on the eighteenth of April, 
1632. The sea treated them roughly; Le Jeime 
was wretchedly sea-sick ; and the ship nearly foun- 
dered in a gale. At length they came in sight of 
" that miserable country," as the missionary calls 
the scene of his future labors. It was in the har- 
bor of Tadoussac that he first encountered the 
objects of his apostolic cares ; for, as he sat in 
the ship's cabin with the master, it was suddenly 
invaded by ten or twelve Indians, whom he com- 
pares to a party of maskers at the Carnival. Some 
had their cheeks painted black, their noses blue, 
and the rest of their faces red. Others were deco- 
rated with a broad band of black across the eyes ; 
and others, again, with diverging rays of black, 
red, and blue on both cheeks. Their attire was no 
less uncouth. Some of them wore shaggy bear- 
skins, reminding the priest of the pictures of St. 
John the Baptist. 

After a vain attempt to save a number of Iro- 
quois prisoners whom they were preparing to burn 
alive on shore, Le Jeune and his companions again 
set sail, and reached Quebec on the fifth of July. 
Having said mass, as already mentioned, under the 
roof of Madame Hebert and her delighted family, 
the Jesuits made their way to the two hovels built 
by their predecessors on the St. Charles, which 
had suff'ered woful dilapidation at the hands of 
the English. Here they made their abode, and 
applied themselves, with such skill as they could 
command, to repair the shattered tenements and 
cultivate the waste meadows around. 



16 PAUL LE JEUNE. [1632. 

The beginning of Le Jeune's missionary labors 
was neither imposmg nor promising. He describes 
himself seated with a small Indian boy on one side 
and a small negro on the other, the latter of whom 
had been left by the English as a gift to Madame 
Hebert. As neither of the three understood the 
language of the others, the pupils made little prog- 
ress in sphitual knowledge. The missionaries, it 
was clear, must learn Algonquin at any cost ; and, 
to this end, Le Jeune resolved to visit the Indian 
encampments. Hearing that a band of Montagnais 
were fishing for eels on the St. Lawrence, between 
Cape Diamond and the cove which now bears the 
name of Wolfe, he set forth for the spot on a 
morning in October. As, with toil and trepida- 
tion, he scrambled around the foot of the cape, — 
whose precipices, with a chaos of loose rocks, 
thrust themselves at that day into the deep tide- 
water, — he dragged down upon himself the trunk 
of a fallen tree, which, in its descent, well nigh 
swept him into the river. The peril past, he pres- 
ently reached his destination. Here, among the 
lodges of bark, were stretched innumerable strings 
of hide, from which hung to dry an incredible mul- 
titude of eels. A boy invited him into the lodge 
of a withered squaw, his grandmother, who has- 
tened to offer him four smoked eels on a piece of 
bii'ch bark, while other squaws of the household 
instructed him how to roast them on a forked stick 
over the embers. All shared the feast together, 
his entertainers using as napkins their own hair 
or that of theu' dogs ; while Le Jeune, intent on 



1G32.] PIERRE. 17 

increasing his knowledge of Algonquii:, maintained 
an active discourse of broken words and panto- 
mime.^ 

The lesson, however, was too laborious, and of 
too little profit, to be often repeated, and the mis- 
sionary sought anxiously for more stable instruc- 
tion. To find such was not easy. The interpreters 
— Frenchmen, who, in the interest of the fur com- 
pany, had spent years among the Indians — were 
averse to Jesuits, and refused their aid. There 
was one resource, however, o'f which Le Jeune 
would fain avail himself. An Indian, called Pierre 
by the French, had been carried to France by the 
RecoUet friars, instructed, converted, and baptized. 
He had lately returned to Canada, where, to the 
scandal of the Jesuits, he had relapsed into his 
old ways, retaining of his French education little 
besides a few new vices. He still haunted the fort 
at Quebec, lured by the hope of an occasional gift 
of wine or tobacco, but shunned the Jesuits, of 
whose rigid way of life he stood in horror. As he 
spoke good French and good Indian, he would 
have been invaluable to the embarrassed priests at 
the mission. Le Jeune invoked the aid of the 
Saints. The effect of his prayers soon appeared, 
he tells us, in a direct interposition of Providence, 
which so disposed the heart of Pierre that he quar- 
relled with the French commandant, who thereupon 
closed the fort against him. He then repaired to 
his friends and relatives in the woods, but only 
to encounter a rebuff from a young squaw to whom 

1 Le Jeuue, Relation, 1633, 2, 
2* 



18 PAUL LE JEUNE. [1632-33. 

he made his addresses. On this, he turned his 
steps towpids the mission-house, and, being unfitted 
by his French education for supporting himself by 
hunting, begged food and shelter from the priests. 
Le Jeune gratefully accepted him as a gift vouch- 
safed by Heaven to his prayers, persuaded a lackey 
at the fort to give him a cast-off suit of clothes, 
promised him maintenance, and installed him as 
his teacher. 

Seated on wooden stools by the rough table 
in the refectory, the priest and the Indian pursued 
their studies. " How thankful I am," writes Le 
Jeune, " to those who gave me tobacco last year ! 
At every difficulty I give my master a piece of it, 
to make him more attentive." ^ 

Meanwhile, winter closed in with a severity rare 
even in Canada. The St. Lawrence and the St. 
Charles were hard frozen ; rivers, forests, and 
rocks were mantled alike in dazzling sheets of 
snow. The humble mission-house of Notre-Dame 
des Anges was half buried in ,the drifts, which, 
heaped up in front where a path had been dug 
through them, rose two feet above the low eaves. 
The priests, sitting at night before the blazing 
logs of then' wide-throated chimney, heard the 
trees in the neighboring forest cracking with frost, 
with a sound like the report of a pistol. Le 
Jeune's ink froze, and his fingers were benumbed, 
as he toiled at his declensions and conjugations, 

1 Relation, 1G33, 7. He continues: " le ne sqaurois assez rendre 
graces a Nostre Seigneur de cet heureux rencontre. . . . Que Dieu 
soit beny pour vn iamais, sa prouidence est adorable, et sa bonte u'a point 
de limites " 



1632-33.] WINTER AT THE MISSION-HOUSE. 19 

or translated the Pater Noster into blundering Al- 
gonquin. The water in the cask beside the fii-e 
froze nightly, and the ice was broken every morn- 
ing with hatchets. The blankets of the two priests 
were fringed with the icicles of their congealed 
breath, and the frost lay in a thick coating on the 
lozenge-shaped glass of their cells.^ 

By day, Le Jeune and his companion practised 
with snow-shoes, with all the mishaps which at- 
tend beginners, — the trippings, the falls, and head- 
long dives into the soft drifts, amid the laughter of 
the Indians. Their seclusion was by no means a 
solitude. Bands of Montagnais, with their sledges 
and dogs, often passed the mission-house on their 
way to hunt the moose. They once invited De 
None to go with them ; and he, scarcely less eager 
than Le Jeune to learn their language, readily con- 
sented. In two or three weeks he appeared, sick, 
famished, and half dead with exhaustion. " Not 
ten priests in a hundred," writes Le Jeune to his 
Superior, " could bear this winter life with the sav- 
ages." But what of that ? It was not for them to 
falter. They were but instruments in the hands of 
God, to be used, broken, and thrown aside, if such 
should be His will.^ 

An Indian made Le Jeune a present of two small 

1 Le Jeune, Relation, 1633, 14, 15. 

2 " Voila, moil Reuerend Pere, vn eschantillon de ce qu'il faut souf- 
frir courant apres les Sauuages. ... II faut prendre sa vie, et tout ce 
qu'on a, et le letter a I'abandon, pour ainsi dire, se contentant d'vne croix 
bien grosse et bien pesante pour toute richesse. II est Men vray que 
Dieu ne se laisse point vaincre, et que plus on quitte, plus on trouue : 
plus on perd, plus on gaigne: mais Dieu se cache par fois, et alors le 
Caliceest bien amer." — Le Jeune, Relation, 1638, 19. 



20 PAUL LE JEUNE. [1C33. 

children, greatly to the delight of the missionary, 
who at once set himself to teaching them to pray 
in Latin. As the season grew milder, the num- 
ber of his scholars increased; for, when parties 
of Indians encamped in the neighborhood, he 
would take his stand at the door, and, like Xavier 
at Goa, ring a bell. At this, a score of children 
would gather around him ; and he, leading them 
into the refectory, which served as his school- 
room, taught them to repeat after him the Pater, 
Ave, and Credo, expounded the mystery of the 
Trinity, showed them the sign of the cross, and 
made them repeat an Indian prayer, the joint 
composition of Pierre and himself; then followed 
the catechism, the lesson closing with., singing the 
Pater Noster, translated by the missionary into 
Algonquin rhymes ; and when all was over, he 
rewarded each of his pupils with a porringer of 
peas, to insure their attendance at his next bell- 
rmging.^ 

It was the end of May, when the priests one 
morning heard the sound of cannon from the fort, 
and were gladdened by the tidings that Samuel de 
Champlain had arrived to resume command at 
Quebec, bringing with him four more Jesuits, — 
Brebeuf, Masse, Daniel, and Davost.^ Brebeuf, 

1 "I'ay commence a appeller quelques enfans auec vne petite clo 
chette. La premiere fois i'en auois six, puis douze, puis quinze, puis 

vingt et davantage ; ie leur fais dire le Pater, Aue, et Credo, etc 

Nous finissons par le Pater Noster, que i'ay compose quasi en rimes en 
leur langue, que ie leur fais chanter : et pour derniere conclusion, ie leur 
fais donner chacun vne escuellee de pois, qu'ils mangent de bon appetit," 
etc. — Le Jeune, Relation, 1633, 23. 

2 See " Pioneers of France " 



1C33.] PLANS OF LE JEUNE. 21 

from tlie first, turned his eyes towards tlie distant 
land of the Hurons, — a field of labor full of peril, 
but rich in hope and promise. Le Jeune's duties 
as Superior restrained him from wanderings so 
remote. His apostleship must be limited, for a 
time, to the vagabond hordes of Algonquins, who 
roamed the forests of the lower St. Lawrence, and 
of whose language he had been so sedulous a 
student. His difficulties had of late been increased 
by the absence of Pierre, who had run off as Lent 
drew near, standing in dread of that season of fast- 
ing. Masse brought tidings of him from Tadoussac, 
whither he had gone, and where a party of English 
had given him liquor, destroying the last trace of 
Le Jeune's late exhortations. " God forgive those," 
writes the Father, " who introduced heresy into this 
country! If this savage, corrupted as he is by 
these miserable heretics, had any wit, he would be 
a great hindrance to the spread of the Faith. It is 
plain that he was given us, not for the good of his 
soul, but only that we might extract from him the 
principles of his language." ^ 

Pierre had two brothers. One, well known as 
a hunter, was named Mestigoit ; the other was the 
most noted "medicine-man," or, as the Jesuits 
called him, sorcerer, in the tribe of the Montagnais. 
like the rest of thek people, they were accustomed 
to set out for theh winter hunt in the autumn, after 
the close of their eel-fishery. Le Jeune, despite the 
experience of De None, had long had a mind to 
accompany one of these roving bands, partly in the 

1 Relation, 1633, 29. 



22 PAUL LE JEITNE. [1633. 

hope, that, in some hour of distress, he might touch 
their hearts, or, by a timely drop of baptismal 
water, dismiss some dying child to paradise, but 
chiefly with the object of mastering then* language. 
Pierre had rejoined his brothers ; and, as the hunt- 
ing season drew near, they all begged the mission- 
ary to make one of their party, — not, as he thought, 
out of any love for him, but solely with a view to 
the provisions with which they doubted not he 
would be well supplied. Le Jeune, distrustful of 
the sorcerer, demurred, but at length resolved to 

go- 



CHAPTER IV. 

1633, 1634. 
LE JEUNE AND THE HUISITERS. 

Le Jeune joins the Indians. — The First Encampment. — Thb 
Apostate. — FokeJst Life in Wintek. — The Indian Hut. — 
The Sorcerer. — His Persecution of the Priest. — Evil Com- 
pany. — Magic. — Incantations. — Christmas. — Starvation. — 
Hopes of Conversion. — Backsliding. — Peril and Escape op 
Le Jeune. — His Return. 

On a morning in the latter part of October, Le 
Jeune embarked with the Indians, twenty in all, 
men, women, and children. No other Frenchman 
was of the party. Champlain bade him an anxious 
farewell, and commended him to the care of his 
red associates, who had taken charge of his store 
of biscuit, flour, corn, prunes, and turnips, to which, 
in an evil hour, his friends had persuaded him to 
add a small keg of wine. The canoes glided! along 
the wooded shore of the Island of Orleans, and the 
party landed, towards evening, on the small island 
immediately below. Le Jeune was delighted with 
the spot, and the wild beauties of the autumnal 
sunset. 

His reflections, however, were soon interrupted. 
While the squaws were setting up their bark lodges, 

[231 



24 LE JEUNE AND THE HUNTERS. [163?. 

and Mestigoit was shooting -svild-fowl for supper, 
Pierre returned to the canoes, tapped the keg of 
wine, and soon fell into the mud, helplessly drunk. 
Revived by the immersion, he next appeared at 
the camp, foaming at the mouth, threw down the 
lodges, overset the kettle, and chased the shrieking 
squaws into the woods. His brother Mestigoit 
rekindled the fire, and slung the kettle anew ; 
when Pierre, who meanwhile had been raving like 
a madman along the shore, reeled in a fury to the 
spot to repeat his former exploit. Mestigoit anti- 
cipated him, snatched the kettle from the fire, and 
threw the scalding contents in his face. " Pie was 
never so well washed before in his life," says Le 
Jeune ; "he lost all the skin of his face and breast. 
Would to God his heart had changed also ! " ^ He 
roared in his frenzy for a hatchet to kill the 
missionary, who therefore thought it prudent to 
spend the night in the neighbormg woods. Here 
he stretched himself on the earth, while a char- 
itable squaw covered him with a sheet of bu'ch- 
bark. "Though my bed," he writes, "had not 
been made up since the creation of the world, it 
was not hard enough to prevent me from sleep- 

Such was his initiation into Indian winter life. 
Passing over numerous adventures by water and 
land, we find the party, on the twelfth of Novem- 
ber, leaving then- canoes on an island, and wading 

1 lamais il ne fut si bien laue, il changea de peau en la face et en tout 
restomacli : pleust a Dieu que son amo eust charge aussi bien que son 
corps!" — Relation, 1634, 59. 



1633.] ALGONQUIN WINTER LIEE. 25 , 

ashore at low tide over the flats to the southern 
bank of the St. Lawrence. As two other bands 
had joined them, their number was increased to 
forty-five persons. Now, leaving the river behind, 
they entered those savage highlands whence issue 
the springs of the St. John, — a wilderness of 
ragged mountain-ranges, clad in dense, continuous 
forests, with no human tenant but this troop of 
miserable rovers, and here and there some kindred 
band, as miserable as they. Winter had set in, 
and already dead Nature was sheeted in funereal 
white. Lakes and ponds were frozen, rivulets 
sealed up, torrents encased with stalactites of ice ; 
the black rocks and the black trunks of the 
pine-trees were beplastered with snow, and its 
heavy masses crushed the dull green boughs into 
the drifts beneath. The forest was silent as the 
grave. 

Through this desolation the long file of Indians 
made its way, all on snow-shoes, each man, woman, 
and child bending under a heavy load, or drag- 
ging a sledge, narrow, but of prodigious length. 
They carried their whole wealth Avith them, on 
their backs or on their sledges, — kettles, axes, 
bales of meat, if such they had, and huge rolls 
of birch-bark for covering their wigwams. The 
Jesuit was loaded like the rest. The dogs alone 
floundered through the drifts unburdened. There 
was neither path nor level ground. Descending, 
climbing, stooping beneath half-fallen trees, clam- 
bering over piles of prostrate trunks, struggling 

tlu'ough matted cedar-swamps, threadmg chill ra- 

3 



26 LE JEUNE AND THE HUNTERS. [1633, 

"vines, and crossing streams no longer "\dsible, they 
toiled on till the day began to decline, then 
stopped to encamp.^ Burdens were thrown down, 
and sledges unladen. ' The squaws, with knives 
and hatchets, cut long poles of bhch and spruce 
saplings ; while the men, with snow-shoes for shov- 
els, cleared a round or square space in the snow, 
\vhich formed an upright wall three or four feet 
liigh, inclosing the area of the wigwam. On one 
side, a passage was cut for an entrance, and the 
poles were planted around the top of the wall 
of snow, sloping and converging. On these poles 
were spread the sheets of birch-bark ; a bear-skin 
was hung in the passage-way for a door ; the bare 
ground within and the surrounding snow were 
covered with spruce boughs ; and the work was 
done. 

This usually occupied about three hours, during 
which Le Jeune, spent with travel, and weakened 
by precarious and unaccustomed fare, had the 
choice of shivering in idleness, or taking part in 
a labor which fatigued, without warming, his ex- 
hausted frame. The sorcerer's wife was in far 

1 " S'il arriuoit quelque degel, 6 Dieu quelle peine ! II me sembloit 
que ie marchois sur vn chemin de verre qui se cassoit h. toxis coups soubs 
mes pietls : la neige congelee venant h. s'amollir, tomboit et s'enfon^oit par 
esquarres ou grandes pieces, et nous en auions bien souuent iusques aux 
genoux, quelquefois iusqu'k la ceinture Que s'il y auoit de la peine h, 
tomber, il 3^ en auoit encor plus a se retirer : car nos raquettes se charge- 
oient de neiges et se rendoient si pesantes, que quand vous veniez a les 
retirer il vous sembloit qu'on vous tiroit les iambes pour vous demem- 
brer. I'en ay veu qui glissoient tellement soubs des soucbes enseuelies 
soubs la neige, qu'ils ne pouuoient tirer ny iambes ny raquettes sans 
secours: or figurez vous maintenant vne personne charge'e comme vn 
midet, et iugez si la vie des Sauuages est douce." — Relation, 1634, 67. 



1633-34.] THE INDIAN HUT. 27 

worse case. Though in the extremity of a mortal 
sickness, they left her lying in the snow till the 
wigwam was made, — without a word, on her part, 
of remonstrance or complaint. Le Jeune, to the 
great ire of her husband, sometimes spent the 
interval in trying to convert her ; but she proved 
intractable, and soon died unbaptized. 

Thus lodged, they remained so long as game 
could be fomid within a circuit of ten or twelve 
miles, and then, subsistence failing, removed to 
another spot. Early in the winter, they hunted 
the beaver and the Canada porcupine ; and, later, 
in the season of deep snows, chased the moose and 
the caribou. 

Put aside the bear-skin, and enter the hut. Here, 
in a space some thirteen feet square, were packed 
nineteen savages, men, women, and children, with 
their dogs, crouched, squatted, coiled like hedge- 
hogs, or lying on their backs, with knees draAvn up 
perpendicularly to keep their feet out of the fire. 
Le Jeune, always methodical, arranges the griev- 
ances inseparable from these rough quarters under 
« four chief heads, — Cold, Heat, Smoke, and Dogs. 
The bark covering was full of crevices, through 
which the icy blasts streamed in upon him from 
all sides ; and the hole above, at once window and 
chimney, was so large, that, as he lay, he could 
watch the stars as well as in the open air. While 
the fire in the midst, fed with fat pine-knots, 
scorched him on one side, on the other he had 
much ado to keep himself from freezing. At 
times, however, the crowded hut seemed heated 



28 LE JEU:s^E AND THE HUNTERS. [1G33-34. 

to the temperature of an oven. But these evils 
were light, when compared to the mtolerable 
plague of smoke. Dunng a snow-storm, and often 
at other times, the wigwam was filled with fumes 
so dense, stifling, and acrid, that all its inmates 
were forced to lie flat on their faces, breathing 
throuo-h mouths in contact with the cold earth. 
Their throats and nostrils felt as if on fire ; their 
scorched eyes streamed with tears ; and when Le 
Jeune tried to read, the letters of his breviary 
seemed printed in blood. The dogs were not 
an unmixed evil, for, by sleeping on and around 
him, they kept him warm at night ; but, as an 
offset to this good service, they walked, ran, and 
jumped over him as he lay, snatched the food 
from his birchen dish, or, in a mad rush at some 
bone or discarded morsel, now and then overset 
both dish and missionary. 

Sometimes of an evening he would leave the 
filthy den, to read his breviary in peace by the light 
of the moon. In the forest around sounded the 
sharp crack of frost-riven trees ; and from the hori- 
zon to the zenith shot up the silent meteors of the 
northern lights, in whose fitful flashings the awe- 
struck Indians beheld the dancing of the spuits 
of the dead. The cold gnawed him to the bone ; 
and, his devotions over, he turned back shivering. 
The illumined hut, from many a chmk and crevice, 
shot forth into the gloom long streams of light 
athwart the twisted boughs. He stooped and en- 
tered. All within glowed red and fiery around the 
blazing pine-knots* where, like brutes in thek ken- 



1683-84.] LE JEUNE AND THE SORCERER. 29 

nel, were gathered the savage crew. He stepped 
to his place, over recumbent bodies and leggined 
and moccasined limbs, and seated himself on the 
carpet of spruce boughs. Here a tribulation 
awaited him, the crowning misery of his wmter- 
quarters, — worse, as he declares, than cold, heat, 
and dogs. 

Of the three brothers who had invited him to 
join the party, one, we have seen, was the hunter, 
Mestigoit ; another, the sorcerer ; and the third, 
Pierre, whom, by reason of his falling away from 
the Faith, Le Jeune always mentions as the Apos- 
tate. He was a weak-minded young Indian, wholly 
under the influence of his brother, the sorcerer, 
who, if not more vicious, was far more resolute and 
wily. From the antagonism of their respective 
professions, the sorcerer hated the priest, who lost 
no opportunity of denouncing his incantations, and 
who ridiculed his perpetual singing and drumming 
as puerility and folly. The former, being an indif- 
ferent hunter, and disabled by a disease which he 
had contracted, depended for subsistence on his 
credit as a magician; and, in undermining it, Le 
Jeune not only outraged his pride, but threatened 
his daily bread. ^ He used every device to retort 
ridicule on his rival. At the outset, he had prof- 



^ " le ne laissois perdre aucune occasion de le conuaincre de niaiseria 
et de puerilite, mettant au iour I'impcrtinence de ses superstitions : or 
c'estoit luy arraclier Fame du corps par violence : car comme 11 ne 
sqauroit plus cliasser, il fait plus que iamais du Prophete et du Magicien 
pour conseruer son credit, et pour auoir les bons morceaux ; si bien qu'es- 
branlant son authorite qui se va perdant tous les iours, ie le touchois a la 
primelle de I'oeil." — Relation, 1GB4, 5G. 



30 LE JEUNE AND THE HUNTERS. [1G38-34. 

fered his aid to Le Jeune in his study of the Al- 
gonquin ; and, like the Indian practical jokers of 
Acadia in the case of Father Biard/ palmed off 
upon him the foulest words in the language as the 
equivalent of things spiritual. Thus it happened, 
that, while the missionary sought to explain to the 
assembled wigwam some point of Christian doc- 
trine, he was interrupted by peals of laughter from 
men, children, and squaws. And now, as Le Jeune 
took his place in the circle, the sorcerer bent upon 
him his malignant eyes, and began that course of 
rude bantering which filled to overflowing the cup 
of the Jesuit's woes. All took their cue from him, 
and made their afflicted guest the butt of their 
inane witticisms. " Look at him ! His face is 
like a dog's ! " — " His head is like a pumpkin ! " 
— "He has a beard like a rabbit's!" The mis- 
sionary bore ui silence these and countless similar 
attacks ; indeed, so sorely was he harassed, that, 
lest he should exasperate his tormentor, he some- 
times passed whole days without uttering a word.^ 

Le Jeune, a man of excellent observation, al- 
ready knew his red associates well enough to 
understand that their rudeness did not of neces- 

1 See " Pioneers of France," 268. 

2 Relation, 1634, 207 (Cramoisy). "lis me chargeoient incessament 
de mille brocards & de niille injures ; je me suis veu en tel estat, que 
pour ne les aigrir, je passois les jours entiers sans ouvrir la bouche." 
Here follows the abuse, in the original Indian, with French translations. 
Le Jeune's account of his experiences is singularly graphic. The follow- 
ing is his sumniaiy of his annoyances : — 

" Or ce miserable homme " (the sorcerer), " & la fumee m'ont este les 
deux plus grands tourmens que i'aye endure parmy ces Barbares : ny le 
froid, ny le chaud, ny I'incommodite des chiens, ny coucher a Fair, ny 
dormir sur im lict de terre, ny la posture qu'il faut tousiours tenir dans 



1633-34.] HIS INDIAN COMPANIONS. 31 

sity imply ill-will. The rest of the party, in their 
turn, fared no better. They rallied and bantered 
each other incessantly, with as little forbearance, 
and as little malice, as a troop of unbridled school- 
boys.^ No one took offence. To have done so 
would haye been to bring upon one's self genuine 
contumely. This motley household was a model 
of harmony. True, they showed no tenderness or 
consideration towards the sick and disabled; but 
for the rest, each shared with all in weal or woe : 
the famine of one was the famine of the whole, 
and the smallest portion of food was distributed 
in fair and equal partition. Upbraidings and com- 
plaints were unheard ; they bore each other's 
foibles with wondrous equanimity ; and while per- 
secuting Le Jeune with constant importunity for 
tobacco, and for everything else he had, they never 
begged among themselves. 

When the fire burned well and food was abun- 
dant, their conversation, such as it was, was in- 
cessant. They used no oaths, for their language 
supplied none, — doubtless because then* mythol- 
ogy had no beings sufficiently distinct to swear by. 
Their expletives were foul words, of which they 

leurs cabanes, se ramassans en peloton, ou se couchans, ou s'asseans sans 
siege & sans mattelas, ny la faim, ny la soif, ny la pauurete & salete de 
leur boucan, ny la maladie, tout cela ne m'a semble que ieu a coniparai- 
son de la fumee & de la malice du Sorcier." — Relation, 1634, 201 (Cra- 
moisy). 

i "Leur vie se passe a manger, a rire, et k railler les vns des autres, 
et de tous les peuples qu'ils cognoissent ; ils n'ont rien de serieux, sinon 
par fois I'exterieur, faisans parmy nous les graues et les retenus, mais 
entr'eux sont de vrais badins, de vrais enfans, qui ne demandent qu'a 
rire." — Relation, 1634, 30. 



32 LE JEUNE AND THE HUNTERS. [1G33-34. 

had a superabundance, and which men, women, and 
children alike used with a frequency and hardihood 
that amazed and scandalized the priest.^ Nor was 
he better pleased with their postures, in which 
they consulted nothing but their ease. Thus, of 
an evening- when the wigwam was heated to suffo- 
cation, the sorcerer, in the closest possible approach 
to nudity, lay on his back, with his right knee 
planted upright and his left leg crossed on it, dis- 
coursmg volubly to the company, who, on their 
part, listened in postures scarcely less remote from 
decency. 

There was one point touching which Le Jeune 
and his Jesuit brethren had as yet been unable to 
solve their doubts. Were the Indian sorcerers 
mere impostors, or were they in actual league with 
the Devil? That the fiends who possess this land 
of darkness make thek power felt by action direct 
and potential upon the persons of its wretched in- 
habitants there is, argues Le Jeune, good reason 
to conclude ; suice it is a matter of grave notoriety, 
that the fiends who infest Brazil are accustomed 
cruelly to beat and otherwise torment the natives 
of that country, as many travellers attest. " A 
Frenchman worthy of credit," pursues the Father, 
"has told me that he has heard with his own ears 
the voice of the Demon and the sound of the blows 

1 "Aussi leur disois-je par fois, que si les pourceaux et les chiens 
S9auoient parler, ils tieadroieiit leur lanj^age. . . . Les filles et les ieunes 
femmes sont ii I'exterieur tres honnesteniont couuertes, mais entre elles 
leurs discours sont puants, comme des cloaques." — Relation, 1634, 32. — 
The social manners of remote tribes of the present time correspond per- 
fectly with Le Jeune's account of those of the Montagnais. 



1533-34.] MAGIC. 33 

wliich he discliarges upon these his miserable 
slaves ; and in reference to this a ^ ery remarkable 
fact has been reported to me, namely, that, when 
a Catholic approaches, the Devil takes flight and 
beats these wretches no longer, but that in pres- 
ence of a Huguenot he does not stop beating 
them."^ 

Thus prone to believe in the immediate pres- 
ence of the nether powers, Le Jeune watched the 
sorcerer with an eye pr^jiajBi^isjtodiscover in his 
conjurations the sig;ns. oi^i ^fl^fflfi^p^^olic agency. 
His observations^p^vever, led him l^a different 
result ; and he cp^d detect in his rival Mothiug but 
a vile compounds impostor and-,<^'D^ The sor- 
cerer believed in tn^^^^^^^^^^jgj^vn magic, and 
was continually singing and beating his drum to 
cure the disease from which he was suffering. 
Towards the close of the winter, Le Jeune fell 
sick, and, in his pain and weakness, nearly, suc- 
cumbed under the nocturnal uproar of the sorcerer, 
who, hour after hour, sang and drummed without 
mercy, — sometimes yelling at the top of his throat, 

1 " Surquoy on me rapporte rne chose tres remarquable, c'est que 
le Diable s'cnfuit, et ne frappe point ou cesse de frapper ces miserables, 
quand vn Catholique entre en leur compagnie, et qu'il ne laiss point 
de les battre en la presence d'vn Huguenot : d'oii vient qu'vn lour se 
Toyans battus en la compagnie d'vn certain Franijois, ils luy dirent : 
Nous nous estonnons que le diable nous batte, toy estant auec nous, veu 
qu'il n'oseroit le faire quand tes compagnons sont presents. Imj se 
douta incontinent que cela pouuoit prouenir de sa religion (car il estoit 
Caluiniste) ; s'addrossant done a Dieu, il luy promit de se faire CathO' 
lique si le diable cessoit de battre ces pauures peuples en sa presencCi 
Le vceu fait, iainais plus aucun Demon ne molesta Ameriquain en sa 
compagnie, d'oii viont qu'il se fit Catholique, selon la promesse qu'il en 
auoit faicte. Mais retournons k nostre discours." — Relation, 1634> 22j 



34 LE JEUNE AND THE HUNTERS. 11633-34. 

then hissing Hke a serpent, then striking his drum 
on the ground as if in a frenzy, then leaping up, 
raving about the wigwam, and calHng on the 
women and children to join him in singing. Nosv 
ensued a hideous din ; for every throat was strained 
to the utmost, and all were beating with sticks or 
•lists on the bark of the hut to increase the noise, 
with the charitable object of aiding the sorcerer to 
conjure down his malady, or drive away the evil 
spirit that caused it. 

He had an enemy, a rival sorcerer, whom he 
charged with having caused by charms the disease 
that afflicted him. He therefore announced that 
he should kill him. As the rival dwelt at Gaspe, 
a hundred leagues off, the present execution of the 
threat might appear difficult; but distance was no 
bar to the vengeance of the sorcerer. Ordering 
all the children and all but one of the women to 
leave, the wigwam, he seated himself, with the 
woman who remained, on the ground in the cen- 
tre, while the men of the joarty, together with 
those from other wigwams in the neighborhood, 
sat in a ring around. Mestigoit, the sorcerer's 
brother, then brought in the charm, consisting of 
a few small pieces of wood, some arrow-heads, a 
broken knife, and an u'on hook, which he wrapj)ed 
in a piece of hide. The woman next rose, and 
walked around the hut, behind the company. 
Mestigoit and the sorcerer now dug a large hole 
with two pointed stakes, the whole assembly sing- 
ing, drumming, and howling meanwhile with a 
deafening uproar. The hole made, the charm. 



lb83-34.] INCANTATIONS. 35 

wrapped in the hide, was thrown into it. Pierre, 
the Apostate, then brought a sword and a knife 
to the sorcerer, who, seizing them, leaped into 
the hole, and, with furious gesticulation, hacked 
and stabbed at the charm, yelling with the whole 
force of his lungs. At length he ceased, displayed 
the knife and sword stained with blood, proclaimed 
that he had mortally wounded his enemy, and de- 
manded if none present had heard his death-cry. 
The assembly, more occupied in making noises 
than in listening for them, gave no reply, till at 
length two young men declared that they had heard 
a faint scream, as if from a great distance ; whereat 
a shout of gratulation and triumph rose from all 
the company.^ 

There was a young prophet, or diviner, in one 
■of the neighboring huts, of whom the sorcerer 
took counsel as to the prospect of his restoration 
to health. The divining-lodge was formed, in this 
instance, of five or six upright posts planted in a 
circle and covered with a blanket. The prophet 
ensconced himself within; and after a long inter 

1 "Le magicien tout glorieux dit que son homme est frappe, qu'il 
mourra bien tost, demande si on n'a point entendu ses cris : tout le 
monde dit que non, horsmis deux ieunes hommes ses parens, qui disent 
auoir ouy des plaintes fort sourdes, et comrae de loing. O qu'ils le firent 
aise ! Se tournant vers moy, il se mit k rire, disant : Voyez cette robe 
noire, qui nous vient dire qu'il ne faut tuer personne. Comme ie 
regardois attentiuement I'espee et le poignard, il me les fit presenter : 
llegarde, dit-il, qu'est cela? C'est du sang, repartis-ie. De qui"? De 
quelque Orignac ou d'autre animal. lis se mocquerent de moy, disants 
que c'estoit du sang de ce Sorcier de Gaspe. Comment, dis-je, il est a 
plus de cent lieues d'icy 1 II est vray, font-ils, mais c'est le Manitou, 
c'est a dire le Diable, qui apporte son sang pardessous la terre.'^ — liela- 
tlM, 1634, 21. 



36 LE JEHNE AND THE HUNTERS. [1633-34. 

val of singing, the spirits declared their presence 
by their usual squeaking utterances from the re- 
cesses of the mystic tabernacle. Their responses 
were not unfavorable ; and the sorcerer drew much 
consolation from the invocations of his brother 
impostor.^ 

Besides his incessant endeavors to annoy Le 
Jeune, the sorcerer now and then tried to frighten 
him. On one occasion, when a period of starva- 
tion had been followed by a successful hunt, the 
whole party assembled for one of the gluttonous 
feasts usual with them at such times. While the 
guests sat expectant, and the squaws were about 
to ladle out the banquet, the sorcerer suddenly 
leaped up, exclaiming, that he had lost his senses, 
and that knives and hatchets must be kept out 
of his way, as he had a mind to kill somebody. 
Then, rolling his eyes towards Le Jeune, he began 
a series of frantic gestures and outcries, — then 
stopped abruptly and stared into vacancy, silent 
and motionless, — then resumed his former clamor, 
raged in and out of the hut, and, seizing some of 
its supporting poles, broke them, as if in an uncon- 
trollable frenzy. The missionary, though alarmed, 
sat reading his breviary as before. When, how- 
ever, on the next morning, the sorcerer began 
again to play the maniac, the thought occurred to 
him, that some stroke of fever might in truth have 
touched his brain. Accordingly, he approached 
him and felt his pulse, which he found, in his own 
words, " as cool as a fish." The pretended mad- 

1 See Introduction. Also, " Pioneers of France," 315. 



1033-34.] CHRISTjMAS, 37 

man looked at him with astonishment, and, giving 
over the attempt to frighten him, presently returned 
to his senses.^ 

Le Jeune, robbed of his sleep by the ceaseless 
thumping of the sorcerer's drum and the monoto- 
nous cadence of his medicine-songs, improved tlie 
time in attempts to convert him. " I began," he 
says, " by evincing a great love for him, and by 
praises, which I threw to him as a bait whereby I 
might catch him in the net of truth." ^ But the 
Indian, though pleased with the Father's flatteries, 
was neither caught nor conciliated. 

Nowhere was his magic in more requisition than 
in procuring a successful chase to the hunters, — a 
point of vital interest, smce on it hung the lives of 
the whole party. They often, however, returned 
empty-handed; and, for one, two, or three succes- 
sive days, no other food could be had than the bark 
of trees or scraps of leather. So long as tobacco 
lasted, they found solace in their pipes, which sel- 
dom left their lips. " Unhaj)py infidels," writes 
Le Jeune, "who spend their lives in smoke, and 
their eternity in flames ! " 

As Christmas approached, their condition grew 

1 The Indians, it is well known, ascribe mysterious and supernatural 
powers to the insane, and respect them accordingly. The Neutral 
Nation (see Introduction, p. xliv) was full of pretended madmen, who 
rared about the villages, throwing firebrands, and making other displays 
of frenzy. 

2 " le commen^ay par vn temoignage de grand amour en son endroit, 
et par des loiianges que ie luy iettay comme vne amorce pour le prendre 
dans les filets de la verite. Ie luy fis entendre que si vn esprit, capable 
des choses grandes comme le sien, cognoissoit Dieu, que tous les Sau- 
uages induis par son exemple le voudroient aussi cognoistre." — Relation, 
1634, 71. 

4 



38 LE JEUNE AND THE HUNTERS. [1633-31. 

desperate. Beavers and porcupines were scarce, 
and the snow was not deep enough for hunting 
the moose. Night and day the medicine-drums 
and medicine-songs resounded from the wigwams, 
mingled with the wail of starving children. The 
hunters grew weak and emaciated ; and, as after a 
forlorn march the wanderers encamped once more 
in the lifeless forest, the priest remembered that it 
was the eve of Christmas. " The Lord gave us for 
our supper a porcupine, large as a sucking pig, 
and also a rabbit. It was not much, it is true, for 
eighteen or nineteen persons ; but the Holy Virgin 
and St. Joseph, her glorious spouse, were not so 
well treated, on this very day, in the stable of 
Bethlehem." ^ 

On Christmas Day, the despairing hunters, again 
unsuccessful, came to pray succor from Le Jeune. 
Even the Apostate had become tractable, and the 
famished sorcerer was ready to try the efficacy 
of an ap23eal to the deity of his rival. A bright 
hope possessed the missionary. He composed two 
prayers, which, with the aid of the repentant Pi- 
erre, he translated into Algonquin. Then he hung 
against the side of the hut a napkin which he had 
brought with him, and against the napkin a cru- 
tnfix and ■ a reliquary, and, this done, caused all 
the Indians to kneel before them, with hands raised 
and clasped. He now read one of the prayers, and 

1 "Pour nostre souper, N. S. nous donna vn Porc-espic gros comme 
vn cochon de lait, et Tn lieure ; c'estoit peu pour dix-huit ou vingt per- 
sonnes que nous estions, il est vray, mais la saincte Vierge et son glori- 
eux Espoux sainct loseph ne furent pas si bien traictez a mesme iour dans 
Testable de Bethleem. ' — Edation, 1634, 74. 



1634.] LE JEUNE LEAVES THE INDIANS. 39 

requii'ed the Indians to repeat the other after him, 
promising to renounce their superstitions, and obey 
Christ, whose image they saw before them, if he 
would give them food and save them from perishing. 
Tlie pledge given, he dismissed the hunters with a 
benediction. At, night they returned with game 
enough to relieve the immediate necessity. All 
was hilarity. The kettles were slung, and the 
feasters assembled. Le Jeune rose to speak, when 
Pierre, who, having killed nothing, was in ill 
humor, said, with a laugh, that the crucifix and 
the prayer had nothing to do with their good 
luck ; while the sorcerer, his jealousy reviving as 
he saw his hunger about to be appeased, called out 
to the missionary, " Hold your tongue ! You have 
no sense ! " As usual, all took their cue from him. 
They fell to their repast with ravenous jubilation, 
and the disappointed priest sat dejected and silent. 

Repeatedly, before the spring, they were thus 
threatened with starvation. Nor was theh case 
exceptional. It was the ordinary winter life of all 
those Northern tribes who did not till the soil, but 
lived by hunting and fishing alone. The deser- 
tion or the killing of the aged, sick, and disabled, 
occasional cannibalism, and frequent death from 
famine, were natural incidents of an existence 
which, during half the year, was but a desperate 
piu'suit of the mere necessaries of life under the 
worst conditions of hardship, sufi"ering, and debase- 
ment. 

At the beginning of April, after roaming for five 
months among forests and mountains, the party 



40 LE JEUJSTE AND THE HUNTERS. [1631 

made their last march, regained the bank of the 
St. Lawrence, and waded to the island where they 
had hidden their canoes. Le Jeune was exhausted 
and sick, and Mestigoit offered to carry him in his 
canoe to Quebec. This Indian was by far the best 
of the three brothers, and both Pierre and the 
sorcerer looked to him for support. He was strong, 
active, and daring, a skilful hunter, and a dexterous 
canoeman. Le Jeune gladly accepted his offer ; 
embarked with him and Pierre on the dreary and 
tempestuous river ; and, after a voyage full of hard- 
ship, during which the canoe narrowly escaped be- 
ing ground to atoms among the floating ice, landed 
on the Island of Orleans, six miles from Quebec. 
The afternoon was stormy and dark, and the river 
was covered with ice, sweeping by with the tide. 
They were forced to encamp. At midnight, the 
moon had risen, the river M^as comparatively un 
encumbered, and they embarked once more. The 
wind increased, and the waves tossed fuiiously. 
Nothing saved them but the skill and courage of 
Mestigoit. At length they could see the rock 
of Quebec towering through the gloom, but piles 
of ice lined the shore, while floating masses were 
drifting down on the angry current. The Indian 
watched his moment, shot his canoe through them, 
gained the fixed ice, leaped out, and shouted to 
his companions to follow. Pierre scrambled up, 
but the ice was six feet out of the water, and Le 
Jeune's agility failed him. He saved himself by 
clutching the ankle of Mestigoit, by whose aid he 
gained a firm foothold at the top, and, for a mo- 



1634.1 AERIVAL AT THE MISSION-HOUSE. 41 

ment, the three voyagers, aghast at the narrow- 
ness of their escape, stood gazing at each other in 
silence. 

It was three o'clock in the morning when Le 
Jeune knocked at the door of his rude little con- 
vent on the St. Charles; and the Fathers, springing 
in joyful haste from their slumbers, embraced their 
long absent Superior with ejaculations of praise and 
benecUction. 



CHAPTER V. 

1633, 1634. 
THE HURON MISSION. 

Plaxs of Conversio.v. — Aurs and Motives. — Indian Diplomacy. 

— HuKONS AT Quebec. — Councils. — The Jesuit Chapel.— 
Le Borgxe. — The Jesuits Thwarted. — Their Perseverance. 

— The Journey to the Hurons. — Jean de Breeeuf. — The 
Mission Begun. 

Le Jeune had learned the difficulties of the 
Algonquin mission. To imagine that he recoiled 
or faltered would be an mjustice to his Order ; 
but on two pomts he had gained convictions : 
first, that little progress could be made in con- 
verting these wandering hordes till they could be 
settled in fixed abodes ; and, secondly, that their 
scanty numbers, their geographical position, and 
their slight mfluence in the politics, of the wilder- 
ness offered no flattering promise that their conver- 
sion would be fruitful in? further triumphs of the 
Faith. It was to another quarter that the Jesuits 
looked most earnestly. By the vast lakes of the 
West dwelt numerous stationary populations, and 
particularly the Hurons, on the lake which bears 

[421 



I 



1633.] JESUIT SCHEMES. 43 

their name. Here was a hopeful basis of indef- 
inite conquests ; for, the Hurons won over, the 
Faith would spread in wider and wider circles, 
embracing, one by one, the kindred tribes, — the 
Tobacco Nation, the Neutrals, the Eries, and the 
Andastes. Nay, in His own time, God might lead 
into His fold even the potent and ferocious Iro- 
quois. 

The way was pathless and long, by rock and tor- 
rent and the gloom of savage forests. The goal was 
more di-eary yet. Toil, hardship, famme, filth, sick- 
ness, solitude, insult, — all that is most revolting to 
men nurtured among arts and letters, all that is 
most terrific to monastic credulity : such were the 
promise and the reality of the Huron mission. 
In the eyes of the Jesuits, the Huron country was 
the innermost stronghold of Satan, his castle and 
his donjon-keep.^ All the weapons of his malice 
were prepared against the bold invader who should 
assail him in this, the heart of his ancient domain. 
Far from shrinking, the priest's zeal rose to tenfold 
ardor. He signed the cross, invoked St. Ignatius, 
St. Francis Xavier, or St. Francis Borgia, kissed his 
reliquary, said nine masses to the Virgin, and stood 
prompt to battle with all the hosts of Hell. 

A life sequestered from social intercourse, and 
remote from every prize which ambition holds 
worth the pursuit, or a lonely death, under forms, 
perhaps, the most appalling, — these were the mis 
sionaries' alternatives. Their maligners may taunt 

1 " Une des principales forteresses & comme un donjon des Demons." 
— Laleniant, Relation des Hurons, 1G39, 100 (Cramoisy). 



44 THE HURON MISSION. ' [1633. 

them, if they will, with credulity, superstition, 
or a blind enthusiasm ; but slander itself cannot 
accuse them of hypocrisy or ambition. Doubt- 
less, in their propagandism, they Avere acting in 
concurrence with a mundane policy ; but, for the 
present at least, this policy was rational and hu- 
mane. .They were promoting the ends of com- 
merce and national expansion. The foundations 
of French dominion were to be laid deep in the 
heart and conscience of the savage. His stubborn 
neck was to be subdued to the " yoke of the 
Faith." The power of the priest established, that 
of the temporal ruler was secure. These sangui- 
nary hordes, weaned from intestine strife, were to 
unite in a common allegiance to God and the 
King. Mingled with French traders and French 
settlers, softened by French manners, guided by 
French priests, ruled by French officers, their now 
divided bands would become the constituents of 
a vast wilderness empire, which in time might 
span the continent. Spanish civilization crushed 
the Indian ; English civilization scorned and neg- 
lected him ; French civilization embraced and cher- 
ished him. 

Policy and commerce, then, built their hopes on 
the priests. These commissioned interpreters of 
the Divine Will, accredited with letters patent frcm 
Heaven, and affiliated to God's anointed on earth, 
would have pushed to its most unqualified appli- 
cation the Scripture metaphor of the shepherd and 
the sheep. They would have tamed the wild man 
of the woods to a condition of obedience, unques- 



1633.] ALLUMETTE ISLAND. 45 

tioning, passive, and absolute, — repugnant to man- 
hood, and adverse to the invigoratmg and expan- 
sive spirit of modern civilization. Yet, full of 
error and full of danger as was their system, they 
embraced its* serene and smiling falsehoods with 
the sincerity of martyrs and the self-devotion of 
saints. 

We have spoken already of the Hurons, of their 
populous villages on the borders of the great 
" Fresh Sea," their trade, their rude agriculture, 
their social life, their wild and incongruous su- 
perstitions, and the sorcerers, diviners, and medi- 
cine-men who lived on their credulity.^ Iroquois 
hostility left open but one avenue to their country, 
the long and circuitous route which, eighteen years 
before, had been explored by Champlain,^ — up 
the river Ottawa, across Lake Nipissing, down 
French River, and along the shores of the great 
Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, — a route as difficult 
as it was tedious. Midway, on AUumette Island, 
in the Ottawa, dwelt the Algonquin tribe visited by 
Champlain in 1613, and who, amazed at the ap 
parition of the white stranger, thought that he had 
fallen from the clouds.^ Like other tribes of this 
region, they were keen traders, and would gladly 
have secured for themselves the benefits of an 
intermediate traffic between the Hurons and the 
French, receiving the furs of the former in barter 
at a low rate, and exchanging them with the latter 
at then* full value. From their position, they 

1 See Introduction. 

2 "Pioneers of France," 364. s Ibid., 348. 



4-6 THE HURON MISSION [1G33. 

could at any time close the passage of the Ottawa; 
but, as this would have been a perilous exercise of 
their rights,' they were forced to act with discre 
tion. An opportunity for the practice of their 
diplomacy had lately occurred. On* or near the 
Ottawa, at some distance below them, dwelt a small 
Algonquin tribe, called La Petite Nation. One of 
this people had lately killed a Frenchman, and the 
murderer was now in the hands of Champlain, a 
prisoner at the fort of Quebec. The savage ]3oli- 
ticians of Allumette Island contrived, as will soon 
be seen, to turn this incident to profit. 

In the July that preceded Le Jeune's wintering 
with the Montagnais, a Huron Indian, well known 
to the French, came to Quebec with the tidings, 
that the annual canoe-fleet of his countrymen wa^j 
descending the St. Lawrence. On the twenty-eighth, 
the river was alive with them. A hundred and 
forty canoes, with six or seven hundred savages, 
landed at the warehouses beneath the fortified rock 
of Quebec, and set up their huts and camp-sheds 

1 Nevertheless, the Hurons always passed this way as a matter of 
favor, and gave yearly presents to the Algonquins of the island, in 
acknowledgment of the privilege. — Le Jeune, Relation, 1636, 70. — By 
the unwritten laws of the Hurons and Algonquins, every tribe had the 
right, even in full peace, of prohibiting the passage of every other tribe 
across its territory. In ordinary cases, such prohibitions were quietly 
Bubmitted to. 

" Ces Insulaires voudraient bien que les Hurons ne vinssent point 
aux Fran(;ois & que les Francois n'allassent point aux Hurons, afin d'em- 
porter eux seuls tout le trafic," etc. — Relation, 1633, 205 (Cramoisy), — 
" desirans eux-mesmes aller recueiller les marchandises des peuples cir- 
convoisins pour les apporter aux Francois." This " Nation de I'lsle " has 
been erroneously located at Montreal. Its true position is indicated oa 
the map of Du Creux, and on an ancient MS. map in the De'pot des Cartes, 
of which a fac-simile is before me. See also "Pioneers of France," 847 ' 



1633.] HURONS AT QUEBEC. 47 

on the strand now covered by the lower town. The 
greater number brought furs and tobacco for the 
trade ; others came as sight-seers ; others to gamble, 
and others to steal/ — accomplishments in which 
the Hurons were proficient : their gambling skill 
being exercised chiefly against each other, and their 
thieving talents against those of other nations. 

The routine of these annual visits was nearly 
uniform. On the first day, the Indians built their 
huts ; on the second, they held their council with 
the French ofiicers at the fort; on the third and 
fourth, they bartered their furs and tobacco for ket- 
tles, hatchets, knives, cloth, beads, iron arrow-heads, 
coats, shirts, and other commodities; on the fifth, 
they were feasted by the French ; and at daybreak 
of the next morning, they embarked and vanished 
like a flight of bhds.^ 

On the second day, then, the long file of chiefs 
and warriors mounted the pathway to the fort, — 
tall, well-moulded figures, robed in the skins of the 
beaver and the bear, each wild visage glowing with 
paint and glistening with the oil which the Hurons 
extracted from the seeds of the sunflower. The 
lank black hair of one streamed loose upon his 
shoulders ; that of another was close shaven, ex- 
cept an upright ridge, which, bristling like the crest 
of a dragoon's helmet, crossed the crown from the 

1 " Quelques vns d'entre eux ne viennent a la traite auec les Fran9ois 
que pour iouiir, d'autres pour voir, quelques vns pour derober, et les plus 
sages et les plus riches pour trafiquer." — Le Jeune, Relation, 1633, 34. 

'^ " Comrae une voice d'oiseaux." — Le Jeune, Relation, 1633, 390 
(Cramoisy). — The tobacco brouglit to the French by the Hurons may 
have been raised by the adjacent tribe of the Tionnontates, who cultivated 
it largely for sale. See Introduction. 



48 THE HURON MISSION. [1683. 

forehead to the neck; while that of a third hung, 
long and flowing from one side, but on the other 
was cut short. Sixty chiefs and principal men, 
with a crowd of younger warriors, formed their 
council-circle in the fort, those of each village 
grouped together, and all seated on the ground 
with a gravity of bearing sufficiently curious to 
those who had seen the same men in the domestic 
chcle of their lodge-fires. Here, too, were the 
Jesuits, robed in black, anxious and mtent; and 
here was Champlain, who, as he surveyed the 
throng, recognized among the elder warriors not 
a few of those Avho, eighteen years before, had 
been his companions in arms on his hapless foray 
against the Iroquois.^ 

Thek harangues of compliment being made and 
answered, and the inevitable presents given and 
received, Champlain introduced to the silent con- 
clave the three missionaries, Brebeuf, Daniel, and 
Davost. To then- lot had fallen the honors, dan- 
gers, and woes of the Huron mission. " These are 
our fathers," he said. " We love them more than 
we love om-selves. The whole French nation honors 
them. They do not go among you for your furs. 
They have left theu' friends and their country to 
show you the way to heaven. If you love the 
French, as you say you love them, then love and 
honor these our fathers."^ 

Two chiefs rose to reply, and each lavished all 

^ See " Pioneers of France," S70. 

2 Le Jeune, Reiation, 1633, 274 (Cramoisy); Mercure Frangais, 1634, 
845. 



I 



1G33.] HUROXS AT THE MISSION-HOUSE. 49 

his rlietoric in praises of Champlain and of the 
French. Brebeiif rose next, and spoke in broken 
Pluron, — the assembly jerking in unison, from the 
bottom of their throats, repeated ejaculations of 
applause. Then they surrounded him, and vied 
with each other for the honor of carryuig him in 
their canoes. In short, the mission was accepted; 
and the chiefs of the different villages disputed 
among themselves the privilege of receiving and 
entertaining the three priests. 

On the last of July, the day of the feast of St. 
Ignatius, Champlain and several masters of trading 
vessels went to the house of the Jesuits in quest of 
indulgences ; and here they were soon beset by a 
crowd of curious Indians, who had finished their 
traffic, and were making a tour of observation. 
Being excluded from the house, they looked in at 
the windows of the room which served as a chapel ; 
and Champlain, amused at their exclamations of 
wonder, gave one of them a piece of citron. The 
Huron tasted it, and, eni'aptured, demanded what 
it was. Champlain replied, laughing, that it was 
the rind of a French pumpkin. The fame of this 
delectable production was instantly spread abroad ; 
and, at every window, eager voices and outstretched 
hands petitioned for a share of the marvellous vege- 
table. Thev were at leno^th allowed to enter the 
chapel, which had lately been decorated with a few 
hangings, images, and pieces of plate. These un- 
wonted splendors filled them with admiration. They 
asked if the dove over the altar was the bird that 
makes the thunder; and, pointing to the images of 

6 



50 THE HURON MISSION. [1633. 

Loyola and Xavier, inquired if they were okies, or 
spii-its : nor was their perplexity much diminished 
by Brebeuf s explanation of their true character. 
Three images of the Virgin next engaged their 
attention ; and, in answer to their questions, they 
were told that they were the mother of Him who 
made the world. This greatly amused them, aud 
they demanded if he had three mothers. "Oh!" 
exclaims the Father Superior, " had we but images 
of all the holy mysteries of our faith! They are a 
great assistance, for they speak their own lesson." ^ 
The mission was not doomed long to suffer from a 
dearth of these inestimable auxiliaries. 

The eve of departure came. The three priests 
packed their baggage, and Champlain paid their 
passage, or, in other words, made presents to the 
Indians who were to carry them in their canoes. 
They lodged that night in the storehouse of the 
fur company, around which the Hurons were en- 
camped ; and Le Jeune and De None stayed with 
them to bid them farewell in the mornmg. At 
eleven at night, they were roused by a loud voicB 
in the Indian camp, and saw Le Borgne, the one- 
eyed chief of Allumette Island, walking round 
among the huts, haranguing as he went. Brebeuf, 
listening, caught the import of his words. " We 
have begged the French captain to spare the life 
of the Algonquin of the Petite Nation whom he 
keeps m prison ; but he will not listen to us. 
The prisoner will die. Then his people will re- 
venge him. They wUl try to kill the three black- 

1 Relation, 1633, 38. 



1633.J THE JESUITS THWARTED. 51 

robes whom you are about to carry to your country. 
If you do not defend them, the French will be 
angry, and charge you with their death. But if 
you do, then the Algonquins will make war on 
you, and the river will be closed. If the French 
captain will not let the prisoner go, then leave the 
three black-robes where they are ; for, if you take 
them with you, they will bring you to trouble." 

Such was the substance of Le Borgne's harangue. 
The anxious priests hastened up to the fort, gained 
admittance, and roused Cliamplain from his slum- 
bers. He sent his interpreter with a message to 
the Hurons, that he wished to speak to them before 
their departure ; and, accordingly, in the morning 
an Indian crier proclaimed through their camp that 
none should embark till the next day. Champlain 
convoked the chiefs, and tried persuasion, promises, 
and threats ; but Le Borgne had been busy among 
them with his intrigues, and now he declared in the 
council, that, unless the prisoner were released, 
the missionaries would be murdered on their way, 
and war would ensue. The politic savage had two 
objects in view. On the one hand, he wished to 
interrupt the direct intercourse between the French 
and the Hurons ; and, on the other, he thought 
to gain credit and influence with the nation of the 
prisoner by effecting his release. His first point 
was won. Champlain would not give up the mur- 
derer, knowing those with whom he was dealing 
too well to take a course which would have pro- 
claimed the killing of a Frenchman a venial of- 
fence. The Hurons thereupon refused to carry the 



52 THE HURON MISSION. [1634. 

missionaries to tlieir country ; coupling the refusal 
with many regrets and many protestations of love, 
partly, no doubt, sincere, — for the Jesuits had 
contriyed to gain no little favor in their eyes. The 
comicil broke up, the Hurons embarked, and the 
priests retm-jied to their convent. 

Here, under the guidance of Brebeuf, they 
employed themselves, amid their other avocations, 
m studymg the Huron tongue. A year passed, and 
again the Indian traders descended from their 
villages. In the meanwhile, grievous calamities 
had befallen the nation. They had suffered deplo- 
rable reverses at the hands of the Iroquois ; while 
a pestilence, similar to that which a few years 
before had swept off the native populations of 
New England, had begun its ravages among them. 
They appeared at Three Rivers — this- year the 
place of trade — in small numbers, and in a mis- 
erable state of dejection and alarm. Du Plessis 
Bochart, commander of the French fleet, called 
them to a council, harangued them, feasted them, 
and made them presents ; but they refused to take 
the Jesuits. In private, however, some of them 
were gained over ; then again refused ; then, at 
the eleventh hour, a second time consented. On 
the eve of embarkation, they once more wavered. 
All was confusion,- doubt, and uncertainty, when 
Brebeuf bethought him of a vow to St. Joseph. 
The vow was made. At once, he says, tbe Indi- 
ans became tractable ; the Fathers embarked, and, 
amid salvos of cannon from the ships, set forth for 
the wild scene of their apostleship. 



1634.] THE JOURNEY TO THE nUR( NS. 53 

They reckoned the distance at mne hundred 
miles ; but distance was the least repellent feature 
of this most arduous journey. Barefoot, lest their 
shoes should injure the frail vessel, each crouched 
in his canoe, toiling with unpractised hands to 
propel it. Before him, week after week, he saw 
the same lank, unkempt hair, the same tawny 
shoulders, and long, naked arms ceaselessly plying 
the paddle. The canoes were soon separated ; and, 
for more than a month, the Frenchmen rarely or 
never met. Brebeuf spoke a little Huron, and could 
converse with his escort; but Daniel and Davost 
were doomed to a silence unbroken save by the 
occasional unintelligible complaints and menaces 
of the Indians, of whom many were sick with the 
epidemic, and all were terrified, desponding, and 
sullen. Their only food was a pittance of Indian 
corn, crushed between two stones and mixed with 
water. The toil was extreme. Brebeuf counted 
thh'ty-five portages, where the canoes were lifted 
from the water, and carried on the shoulders of the 
voyagers around rapids or cataracts. More than 
fifty times, besides, they were forced to wade in 
the raging current, pushing up their empty barks, 
or dragging them with ropes. Brebeuf tried to 
do his part ; but the boulders and sharp rocks 
wounded his naked feet, and compelled him to 
desist. He and his companions bore their share 
of the baggage across the portages, sometimes a 
distance of several miles. Four trips, at the least, 
were required to convey the whole. The way was 
through the dense forest, incumbered with rock." 

5* 



i)4 THE HURON MISSION. [1634. 

and logs, tangled with roots and underbrush, damp 
with perpetual shade, and redolent of decayed 
leaves and mouldering wood.^ The Indians them- 
selves were often spent with fatigue. Brebeuf, a 
man of hon frame and a nature unconquerably res- 
olute, doubted if his strength would sustain him to 
the journey's end. He complains that he had no 
moment to read his breviary, except by the moon- 
light or the fire, when stretched out to sleep on a 
bare rock by some savage cataract of the Ottawa, 
or in a damp nook of the adjacent forest. 

All the Jesuits, as well as several of their conn 
trymen who accompanied them, suffered more or 
less at the hands of their ill-humored conductors.^ 
Davost's Indian robbed him of a part of his bag- 
gage, threw a part into the river, including most of 
the books and writing-materials of the three priests, 
and then left him behind, among the Algonquins of 



1 " Adioustez h, ces diificultez, qu'il faut coucher sur la terre nue, ou 
Bur quelqiie dure roche, faute de trouuer dix ou douze pieds de terre en 
quarre pour placer vne chetiue cabane ; qu'il faut sentir incessaniment la 
puanteur des Sauuages recreus, marcher dans les eaux, dans les fanges, 
dans I'obscurite et I'embarras des forest, oil les piqueures d'vne multitude 
infinie de mousquilles et cousins vous importunent fort." — Brebeuf, 
Relation des Hurons, 1635, 25, 26. 

2 " En ce voyage, il nous a fallu tons commencer par ces experiences 
a porter la Croix que Nostre Seigneur nous presente pour son honneur, et 
pour le salut de ces pauures Barbares. Certes ie me suis trouue quel- 
quesfois si las, que le corps n'en pouuoit plus. Mais d'ailleurs mon arae 
ressentoit de tres-grands contentemens, considerant que ie soufl'rois pour 
Dieu : nul ne le S9ait, s'il ne I'experimente. Tons n'en ont pas este 
quittes a si bon marche'." — Brebeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1635, 26. 

Three years afterwards, a paper was printed by the Jesuits of Paris, 
called l)istruction pour les Peres de nostre Compagnie qui seront enuoiez aux 
Hurons, and containing directions for tlieir conduct on this route by the 
Ottawa. It is highly characteristic, both of the missionaries and of the 
Indians. Some of the points are, in substance, as foUows. — You should 



1634.J br:ebeue's aerival. 55 

Allumette Island. He found means to continue tlie 
journey, and at length reached the Huron towns in 
a lamentable state of bodily prostration. Daniel, 
too, was deserted, but fortunately found another 
party who received him into their canoe. A young 
Frenchman, named Martin, was abandoned among 
tlie Nipissings ; another, named Baron, on reaching 
the Huron country, was robbed by his conductors 
of all he had, except the weapons in his hands. 
Of these he made good use, compelling the robbers 
to restore a part of then' plunder. 

Descending French River, and following the 
lonely shores of the great Georgian Bay, the canoe 
W'hich carried Brebeuf at length neared its desti- 
nation, thirty days after leaving Thi'ee Rivers 
Before him, stretched in savage slumber, lay the 
forest shore of the Hurons. Did his spkit sink as 
he approached his dreary home, oppressed with a 
dark foreboding of what the future should bring 

love the Indians like brothers, with whom you are to spend the rest of 
your life. — Never make them wait for you in embarking. — Tal^e a flint 
and steel to light their pipes and kindle their fire at night ; for these little 
services win their hearts. — Try to eat their sagamite as they cook it, bad 
and dirty as it is. — Easten up the skirts of your cassock, that you may 
not carry water or sand into the canoe. — Wear no shoes or stockings in 
the canoe ; but you may put them on in crossing the portages. — Do not 
make yourself troublesome, even to a single Indian. — Do not ask them 
too many questions. — Bear their faults in silence, and appear always 
cheerful. — Buy fish for them from the tribes you will pass; and for 
this purpose take with you some awls, beads, knives, and fish-hooks. 
— Be not ceremonious with the Indians; take at once what they offer 
you : ceremony offends them. — Be very careful, when in the canoe, that 
the brim of your hat does not annoy them. Perhaps it would be better 
to wear your night-cap. There is no such thing as impropriety among 
Indians. — Remember that it is Clirist and liis cross that you are seeking ; 
and if you aim at anything else, you will get nothing but affliction for 
body and mind. 



56 THE HURON MISSION. [1634 

forth? There is some reason to think so. Yet it 
was but the shadow of a moment; for his mascu- 
line heart had lost the sense of fear, and his in- 
trepid nature was fired with a zeal before which 
doubts and uncertainties fled like the mists of the 
morning. Not the grim enthusiasm of negation, 
tearing up the weeds of rooted falsehood, or with 
bold hand felling to the earth the baneful growth 
of overshadowing abuses : his was the ancient faith 
uncurtailed, redeemed from the decay of centuries, 
kindled with a new life, and stimulated to a preter- 
natural growth and fruitfulness. 

Brebeuf and his Huron companions having 
landed, the Indians, throwing the missionary's bag- 
gage on the ground, left him to his own resources ; 
and, without heeding his remonstrances, set forth for 
their respective villages, some twenty miles distant. 
Thus abandoned, the priest kneeled, not to implore 
succor in his perplexity, but to offer thanks to the 
Providence which had shielded him thus far. Then, 
rising, he pondered as to what course he should 
take. He knew the spot well. It was on the 
borders of the small inlet called Thunder Bay. In 
the nei2:hborino^ Huron town of Toanche he had 
lived three years, preaching and baptizing;^ but 
Toanche had now ceased to exist. Here, Etienne 
Brule, Champlam's adventurous interpreter, had re- 
cently been murdered by the inhabitants, who, in 

^ From 1626 to 1629. There is no record of the events of this first 
mission, which was ended with the English occupation of Quebec. Bre- 
beuf had previously spent the winter of 1625-26 among the Algonquiiis, 
like Le Jeune in 1633-31:. — Lettre du P. Charles Lalemant au T. R. P. 
Mutio Vitelleschi, 1 Aug., 1626, in Carayon. 



1634 j BEJ£BEUF'S EECEPTION. 57 

excitement and alarm, dreading the consequences 
of their deed, had deserted the spot, and built, at 
the distance of a few miles, a new town, called 
Ihonatiria.^ Brebeuf hid his baggage in the woods, 
including the vessels for the Mass, more precious 
than all the rest, dnd began his search for this new 
abode. He passed the burnt remains of Toanche, 
saw the charred poles that had formed the frame 
of his little chapel of bark, and found, as he 
thought, the spot where Brule had fallen.^ Eve- 
ning was near, when, after followmg, bewildered 
and anxious, a gloomy forest path, he issued upon 
a wild clearing, and saw before him the bark roofs 
of Ihonatiria. 

A crowd ran out to meet him. " Echom has 
come again ! Echom has come again ! " they cried, 
recognizing in the distance the stately figure, 
robed in black, that advanced from the border of 
the forest. They led him to the town, and the 
whole population swarmed about him. After a 
short rest, he set out with a number of young 
Indians in quest of his baggage, returning with it 
at one o'clock in the morning. There was a cer- 
tain Awandoay in the village, noted as one of the 
richest and most hospitable of the Hurons, — a 
distinction not easily won where hospitality was 



1 Concerning Brule, see " Pioneers of Trance," 377-380. 

2 " le vis pareillement Tendroit ou le pauiire Estienne Brule auoit este 
barbarement et traitreusement assorame ; ce qui me fit penser que quelque 
lour on nous pourroit bien traitter de la sorte, et desirer au moins que ce 
fust en pourchassant la gloire de N. Seigneur." — Brebeuf, Relation des 
Hurons, 1635,28, 29. — The missionary's prognostics were but too well 
founded. 



58 THE HURON MISSION. [1634 

universal. His house was large, and amply stored 
with beans and corn ; and though his prosperity 
had excited the jealousy of the villagers, he had 
recovered then good-will by his generosity. With 
him Brebeuf made his abode, anxiously waiting, 
week after week, the arrival of his companions. 
One by one, they appeared: Daniel, weary and 
worn; Davost, half dead with famine and fatigue; 
and then French attendants, each with his tale 
of hardship and indignity. At length, all were 
assembled under the roof of the hospitable Indian, 
and once more the Huron mission was begun. 



CHAPTER VI. 

1634, 1635. 

BREBEUF AND HIS ASSOCIATES. 

The Huron Mission-House. — Its Inmates. — Its !Furnituke. — Its 
Guests. — The Jesuit as a Teacher. — As an Engineer. — 
Baptisms. — Huron Village Life. — Festivities and Sorce- 
ries. — The DRE.i.M Feast. — The Priests accused of Magic. 
— The Drought and the Red Cross. 

Where should the Fathers make their abode"? 
Their first thought had been to establish themselves 
at a place called by the French Hochelle, the 
largest and most important town of the Huron 
confederacy; but Brebeuf now resolved to remain 
at Ihonatiria. Here he was well known; and here, 
too, he flattered himself, seeds of the Faith had 
been planted, which, with good nurture, would in 
time yield fruit. 

By the ancient Huron custom, when a man or a 
family wanted a house, the whole village joined in 
building one. In the present case, not Ihonatiria 
only, but the neighboring town of Wenrio also, 
took part in the work, — though not without the 
expectation of such gifts as the priests had to 
bestow. Before October, the task was finished. 

(591 



60 BRi:BEUF AND HIS ASSOCIATES. [1G34-35. 

The house was constructed after the Huron model.* 
It was thirty-six feet long and about twenty feet 
wide, framed with strong sapling poles planted m 
the earth to form the sides, with the ends bent mto 
an arch for the roof, — the whole lashed firmly 
together, braced with cross-j)oles, and closely cov- 
ered with overlapping sheets of bark. Without, 
the structure was strictly Indian ; but within, the 
priests, with the aid of their tools, made innova- 
tions which were the astonishment of all the coun- 
try. They divided their dwelling by transverse 
partitions into three apartments, each with its 
wooden door, — a wondrous novelty in the eyes of 
their visitors. The first served as a hall, an ante- 
room, and a place of storage for corn, beans, and 
dried fish. The second — the largest of the tlii'ee — 
was at once kitchen, workshop, dining-room, di'aw- 
ing-room, school-room, and bed-chamber. The 
third was the chapel. Here they made their altar, 
and here w^ere then' images, pictures, and sacred 
vessels. Their fire was on the ground, in the mid- 
dle of the second apartment, the smoke escaping by 
a hole in the roof. At the sides were placed two 
wide platforms, after the Huron fashion, four feet 
from the earthen floor. On these were chests in 
which they kept their clothing and vestments, and 
beneath them they slept, reclming on sheets of 
bark, and covered with skins and the garments 
they wore by day. Rude stools, a hand-mill, a 
large Indian mortar of wood for crushing corn, 
and a clock, completed the furnitiu-e of the room. 

1 See latroduction. 



1634-35.1 THE JESUITS AND THEIR GUESTS. 61 

There was no lack of visitors, for the house 
of the black-robes contained marvels ^ the fame of 
which was noised abroad to the uttermost confines 
of the Huron nation. Chief among them was the 
clock. The guests would sit in expectant silence 
by the hour, squatted on the ground, waiting to hear 
it strike. They thought it was alive, and asked 
what it ate. As the last stroke sounded, one of the 
Frenchmen would cry " Stop ! " — and, to the ad- 
miration of the company, the obedient clock was 
silent. The mill was another wonder, and they 
were never tired of turning it. Besides these, 
there was a prism and a magnet; also a magni- 
fying-glass, wherein a flea was transformed to a 
frightful monster, and a multiplying lens, which 
showed them the same object eleven times repeated. 
" All this," says Brebeuf, " serves to gain their 
aff'ection, and make them more docile in respect to 
the admirable and incomprehensible mysteries of 
our Faith ; for the opinion they have of our genius 
and capacity makes them believe whatever we tell 
them."^ 

" What does the Captain say 1 " was the frequent 
question ; for by this title of honor they designated 
the clock. 

1 " lis ont pense qu'elle entendoit, principalement quand, pour rire, 
quelqu'vn de nos Francois s'esci-ioit au dernier coup de marteau, c'est 
assez Sonne, et que tout aussi tost elle se taisoit. lis I'appellent le Capi- 
taine du iour. Quand elle sonne, ils disent qu'elle parle, et demandent, 
quand ils nous viennerit veoir, combien de fois le Capitaine a desia parle. 
Ils nous interrogent de son manger. Ils demeurent les huures entieres, 
et quelquesfois plusieurs, afin de la pouuoir ouyr parler." — Brebeuf, 
Relation des Huvons, 1035, 33. 

2 Brebeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1035, 33. 

6 



62 BR^BEUP AA^D HIS ASSOCIATES. [1634-35. 

" When lie strikes twelve times, he says, ' Hang 
on the kettle'; and when he strikes four times, he 
says, ' Get up, and go home.' " 

Both interpretations were w^ell remembered. At 
noon, visitors were never wanting, to share the 
Fathers' sagamite ; but at the stroke of four, all 
rose and departed, leaving the missionaries for a 
time in peace. Now the door was bajxeil, and, 
gathering around the fire, they discussed the pros- 
pects of the mission, compared their several expe- 
riences, and took counsel for the future. But the 
standmg topic of their evening talk was the Huron 
language. Concerning this each had some new 
discovery to relate, some new suggestion to offer; 
and in the task of analyzing its construction and 
deducing its hidden laws, these intelligent and 
highly cultivated minds found a congenial employ- 
ment.^ 

But while zealously laboring to perfect their 
knowledge of the language, they spared no pains 
to turn their present acquirements to account. 
Was man, woman, or child sick or suffering, they 
were always at hand with assistance and relief, — 
adding, as they saw opportunity, explanations of 
Christian doctrine, pictures of Heaven and Hell, 
and exhortations to embrace the Faith. Their 
friendly offices did not cease here, but included 
matters widely different. The Hurons lived in 
constant fear of the Iroquois. At times the whole 
village population would fly to the woods for con- 
cealment, or take refuge in one of the neighboring 

* Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1639, 17 (Cramoisj). 



1684-35.] ATTEMPTS AT CONVERSION. 63 

fortified towns, on the rumor of an approaching 
war-party. Tlie Jesuits promised them the aid of 
the four Frenchmen armed with arquebuses, who 
had come with them from Three Rivers. They 
advised the Hurons to make their palisade forts, not, 
as hitherto, in a circular form, but rectangular, 
"with small flanking towers at the corners for the 
arquebuse-men. The Indians at once saw the 
value of the advice, and soon after began to act 
on it in the case of their great town of Ossossane, 
or Rochelle.^ 

At every opportunity, the missionaries gathered 
together the children of the village at their house. 
On these occasions, Brebeuf, for greater solemnity, 
put on a surplice, and the close, angular cap worn 
by Jesuits in their convents. First he chanted the 
Pater JSfoster, translated by Father Daniel into 
Huron rhymes, — the children chanting in their 
turn. Next he taught them the sign of the cross ; 
made them repeat the Ave, the Credo, and the 
Commandments ; questioned them as to past in- 
structions ; gave them briefly a few new ones ; and 
dismissed them with a present of two or three 
beads, raisins, or prunes. A great emulation was 
kindled among this small fry of heathendom. The 
priests, with amusement and delight, saw them 
gathered in groups about the village, vying with 
each other in making the sign of the cross, or in 
repeating the rhymes they had learned. 

At times, the elders of the people, the reposi- 
tories of its ancient traditions, were induced to 

^ Brebeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1636, 86. 



64 BR£BEUF and his associates. [1634-35 

assemble at the house of the Jesuits, who explained 
to them the principal pomts of then* doctrine, and 
invited them to a discussion. The auditors proved 
pliant to a fault, respondmg, " Good," or " That is 
true," to every proposition; but, when urged to 
adopt the faith which so readily met their ap- 
proval, they had always the same reply: "It is 
good for the French ; but we are another people, 
with different customs." On one occasion, Brebeuf 
appeared before the chiefs and elders at a solemn 
national council, described Heaven and Hell with 
images suited to their comprehension, asked to 
which they preferred to go after death, and then, 
in accordance with the invariable Hui'on custom m 
affairs of importance, presented a large and valuable 
belt of wampum, as an invitation to take the path 
to Paradise.^ 

Notwithstanding all theh exhortations, the Jes- 
uits, for the present, baptized but few. Indeed, 
during the fu'st year or more, they baptized no 
adults except those apparently at the point of 
death ; for, with excellent reason, they feared 
backsliding and recantation. They found especial 
pleasui-e m the baptism of dpng infants, rescuing 
them from the flames of perdition, and changing 
them, to borrow Le Jeune's phrase, " from httle 
Indians into little angels." - 

1 Brebeuf, Relation des Eurons, 1636, 81. For the use of wampum 
belts, see Introduction. 

2 "Le seiziesrae du mesme mois, deux petits Sauvages furent changez 
en deux petits Anges." — Relation, 1636, 89 (Cramoisy). 

" mon cher frere, vous pourrois-je expliquer quelle consolation ce 
m'etoit quand je voyois un pauure baptise moui-ir deux heures, une demi 



]G3i-35.] CURE OF A MADMAN. 65 

Tile Fathers' slumbers were brief and broken. 
Winter was the season of Huron festivity ; and, as 
they lay stretched on theh hard couch, suffocating 
with smoke and tormented by an inevitable multi- 
tude of fleas, the thumping of the drum resounded 
all night long from a neighboring house, mingled 
with the sound of the tortoise-shell rattle, the 
stamping of moccasined feet, and the cadence of 
voices keeping time with the dancers. Again, 
some ambitious villager would give a feast, and 
invite all the warriors of the neighboring towns ; 
or some grand wager of gambling, with its attend- 
ant drumming, singing, and outcries, filled the night 
with discord. 

But these were light annoyances, compared with 
the msane rites to cure the sick, prescribed by the 
"medicine-men," or ordained by the eccentric in- 
spiration of dreams. In one case, a young sor- 
cerer, by alternate gorging and fasting, — both in 
the interest of his profession, — joined with exces- 
sive exertion in singing to the spirits, contracted 
a disorder of the brain, which caused him, in 
mid- winter, to run naked about the village, howling 
like a wolf. The whole population bestirred itself 
to effect a cure. The patient had, or pretended to 
have, a dream, in which the conditions of his re- 



journee, une ou deux joiirnces, apres son baptesme, particulierement 
quand c'etoit un petit enfant ! " — Lettre du Pere Gamier a son Frere, MS. 
— This form of benevolence is beyond heretic appreciation; 

" La joye qu'on a quand on a baptise un Sauvage qui se meurt peu 
apres, & qui s'envole droit au Ciel, pour devenir un Ange, certainement 
c'est un joye qui surpasse tout ce qu'on se peut imaginer." — Le JeunCj 
Relation, 1G35, 221 (Cramoisy). 

6* 



66 BEiBEUF AND HIS ASSOCIATES. [1634-35. 

covery were revealed to him. These were equally 
ridiculous and diffic-ult ; but the elders met in coun- 
cil, and all the villagers lent their aid, till every 
requisition was fulfilled, and the incongruous mass 
of gifts which the madman's dream had demanded 
were all bestowed upon him. This cure failing, 
a " medicine-feast " was tried ; then several dances 
in succession. As the patient remained as crazy 
as before, preparations were begun for a grand 
dance, more potent than all the rest. Brebeuf 
says, that, except the masquerades of the Carnival 
among Christians, he never saw a folly equal to it. 
" Some," he adds, " had sacks over their heads, 
with two holes for the eyes. Some were as naked 
as your hand, with horns or feathers on their heads, 
then- bodies painted white, and their faces black as 
devils. Others were daubed T^dth red, black, and 
white. In short, every one decked himself as 
extravagantly as he could, to dance in this ballet, 
and contribute something towards the health of the 
sick man."^ This remedy also failing, a crowning 
effort of the medical art was essayed. Brebeuf 
does not describe it, for fear, as he says, of being 
tedious ; but, for the time, the village was a pande- 
monium.^ This, with other ceremonies, was sup- 
posed to be ordered by a certain image like a 
doll, which a sorcerer placed in his tobacco-pouch, 
whence it uttered its oracles, at the same time 

1 ReJation des Hurons, 1686, 116. 

2 " Suffit pour le present de dire en general, que iamais les Bacchantes 
forcencos du temps passe ne firent rien de plus furieux en leurs orgyes. 
C'est icy a s'entretuer, disent-ils, par des sorts qu'ils s'entreiettent, dont la 
composition est d'ongles d'Om-s, de dents de Loup, d'ergots d'Aigles, de 



1635.] THE DREAM FEAST. 67 

moving as if alive. " Truly," writes Brebeuf, " here 
is nonsense enough : but I greatly fear there is 
something more dark and mysterious in it." 

But all these ceremonies were outdone by the 
grand festival of the Ononhara^ or Dream Feast, 
• — esteemed the most powerful remedy in cases of 
sickness, or when a village was infested with evil 
spmts. The time and manner of holding it were 
determined at a solemn council. This scene of 
madness began at night. Men, women, and chil- 
dren, all pretending to have lost their senses, 
rushed shrieking and howling from house to house, 
upsetting everything in their way, throwing fire- 
brands, beating those they met or drenching them 
with water, and availing themselves of this time 
of license to take a safe revenge on any who had 
ever offended them. This scene of frenzy continued 
till daybreak. No corner of the village was secure 
from the maniac crew. In the morning there 
was a change. They ran from house to house, 
accosting the inmates by name, and demanding of 
each the satisfaction of some secret want, revealed 
to the pretended madman in a dream, but of the 
nature of which he gave no hint whatever. The 
person addressed thereupon threw to him at ran- 
dom any article at hand, as a hatchet, a kettle, or a 
pipe ; and the applicant continued his rounds till 
the desked gift was hit upon, when he gave an 

certaines pierres et de nerfs de Chien ; c'est k. rendre du sang par la 
bouche et par les narines, ou plustost d'vne poudre rouge qu'ils prennent 
subtilement, estans tombez sous le sort, et blessez; et dix mille autres 
sottises que ie laisse volontiers." — Brebeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1636^ 
il7. 



68 BR1&BEUF AND HIS ASSOCIATES. [1G35. 

outcry of delight, echoed by gratulatory cries from 
all present. If, after all his efforts, he failed in 
obtaining the object of his dream, he fell into a 
deep dejection, convinced that some disaster was 
in store for him.^ 

The approach of summer brought with it a 
comparative peace. Many of the villagers dis 
persed, — some to their fishing, some to expe 
ditions of trade, and some to distant lodges by 
their detached corn-fields. The priests availed 
themselves of the respite to engage in those exer 
cises of private devotion which the rule of St. 
Ignatius enjoins. About midsummer, however, 
their quiet was suddenly broken. The crops were 
withering under a severe drought, a calamity which 
the sandy nature of the soil made doubly serious. 
The sorcerers put forth thek utmost power, and, 
from the tops of the houses, ^^elled incessant in- 
vocations to the spirits. All was in vain ; the 
pitiless sky was cloudless. There was thunder in 
the east and thunder in the west ; but over Ihon- 
atiria all was serene. A reno-\vned " rain-maker," 
seeing his reputation tottering under his repeated 
failures, bethought him of accusmg the Jesuits, 
and gave out that the red color of the cross which 
stood before their house scared the bird of thunder, 

1 Brebeuf s account of the Dream Feast is brief. The above partic- 
ulars are drawn chiefly from Charlevoix, Journal Historique, 356, and 
Sagard, Voyage du Pays des Hurons, 280. See also Lafitau, and other 
early writers. This ceremony was not confined to the Hurons, but pre- 
vailed also among the Iroquois, and doubtless other kindred tribes. The 
Jesuit Dablon saw it in perfection at Onondaga. It usually took place in 
February, occupying about three days, and was often attended with great 
indecencies. The word ononhara means turning of the brain. 



1635.] THE DROUGHT AND THE CROSS. 69 

and caused him to fly another way.^ On this a 
clamor arose. The popular ire turned against the 
priests, and the obnoxious cross was condemned to 
be hewn down. Aghast at the threatened sac- 
rilege, they attempted to reason away the storm, 
assuring the crowd that the lightning was not a 
bird, but certain hot and fiery exhalations, whichj 
being imprisoned, darted this way and that, trying 
to escape. As this philosophy failed to convince 
the hearers, the missionaries changed their line of 
defence. 

" You say that the red color of the crosh 
frightens the bird of thunder. Then paint the 
cross white, and see if the thunder will come." 

This was accordingly done ; but the clouds still 
kept aloof. The Jesuits followed up their advan- 
tage. 

"Your spirits cannot help you, and your sor- 
cerers have deceived you with lies. Now ask the 
aid of Him who made the world, and perhaps 
He will listen to your prayers." And they added, 

1 The following is the account of the nature of thunder, given to Bre- 
beuf on a former occasion by another sorcerer. 

" It is a man in the form of a turkey-cock. The sky is his palace, and 
he remains in it when the air is clear. When the clouds begin to grum- 
ble, he descends to the earth to gather up snakes, and other objects which 
the Indians call ohies. The lightning flashes whenever he opens or closes 
his wings. If the storm is more violent than usual, it is because his 
young are with him, and aiding in the noise as well as they can." — Rela- 
tion des Hurons, 1636, 114. 

The word oki is here used to denote any object endued with super- 
natural power. A belief similar to the above exists to this day among 
the Dacotahs. Some of the Hurons and Iroquois, however, held that the 
thunder was a giant in human form. According to one story, he vomited 
from time to time a number of snakes, which, falling to the earth, caused 
the appearance of lightning. 



70 BRfiBEUl' AJ<iT> HIS ASSOCIATES. [1635. 

that, if the Indians would renounce their sins and 
obey the true God, they would make a procession 
daily to implore His favor towards them. 

There was no want of promises. The proces- 
sions were begun, as were also nine masses to St. 
Joseph ; and, as heavy rains occurred soon after, 
the Indians conceived a high idea of the efficacy 
of the French " medicine." ^ 

In spite of the hostility of the sorcerers, and the 
transient commotion raised by the red cross, the 
Jesuits had gamed the confidence and good-will of 
the Huron population. Their patience, thek kind- 
ness, their intrepidity, their manifest disinterest- 
edness, the blamelessness of their lives, and the 
tact which, in the utmost fervors of their zeal, 
never failed them, had won the hearts of these 
wayward savages ; and chiefs of distant villages 
came to urge that they would make their abode 
with them.^ As yet, the results of the mission 
had been faint and few ; but the priests toiled on 
courageously, high in hope that an abundant har- 
vest of souls would one day reward thek labors. 

1 " Nous deuons aussi beaucoup au glorieux sainct Joseph, espoux de 
Nostre Dame, et protecteur des Hurons, dont nous auons touche au 
doigt Tassistance plusieurs fois. Ce fut vne chose remarquable, que le 
iour de sa feste et durant I'Octaue, les commoditez nous venoient de 
toutes parts." — Brebeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1635, 41. 

The above extract is given as one out of many iUustrations of the 
confidence with which the priests rested on the actual and direct aid of 
their celestial guardians. To St. Joseph, in particular, they find no 
words for their gratitude. 

2 Brebeuf preserves a speech made to him by one of these chiefs, as 
a specimen of Huron eloquence. — Relation des Hurons, 1636, 123. 



CHAPTER Vn. 

1636, 1637. 
THE FEAST OF THE DEAD. 

Huron Graves. — Preparation for the Ceremony. — Disintbk- 
MENT. — The Mourning. — The Funeral March. — The Great 
Sepulchre. — Funeral Games. — Encampment of the Mourn- 
ers. — Gifts. — Harangues. — Frenzy of the Crowd. — The 
Closing Scene. — Another Rite. — The Captive Iroquois.— 
The Sacrifice. 

Mention has been made of those great deposi- 
tories of human bones found at the present day in 
the ancient country of the Hurons.^ They have 
been a theme of abundant speculation ; ^ yet their 
origin is a subject, not of conjecture, but of his- 
toric certainty. The peculiar rites to which they 
owe their existence were first described at length 
by Brebeuf, who, in the summer of the year 1636, 
saw them at the town of Ossossane. 

The Jesuits had long been familiar with the 
ordinary rites of sepulture among the Hurons : the 
corpse placed in a crouching posture in the midst 
of the circle of friends and relatives ; the long, 

1 See Introduction. 

2 Among those who have wondered and speculated over these re- 
mains is Mr. Schoolcraft. A slight acquaintance with the early writers 
would have solved his doubts. 

[71] 



72 THE FEAST OF THE DEAD. [1636. 

measured Avail of the mourners ; the speeches in 
praise of the dead, and consolation to the living ; 
the funeral feast ; the gifts at the place of burial ; 
the funeral games, where the young men of the 
village contended for prizes ; and the long period 
of mourning to those next of kin. The body was 
usually laid on a scaffold, or, more rarely, in the 
earth. This, however, 'svas not its final resting- 
place. At intervals of ten or twelve years, each 
of the four nations which composed the Pluron 
Confederacy gathered together its dead, and con- 
veyed them all to a common place of sepulture. 
Here was celebrated the great " Feast of the 
Dead," — in the eyes of the Hurons, their most 
solemn and important ceremonial. 

In the spring of 1636, the chiefs and elders of 
the Nation of the Bear — the principal nation 
of the Confederacy, and that to w^hich Ihonatiria 
belonged — assembled in a general council, to pre- 
pare for the great solemnity. There was an 
unwonted spkit of dissension. Some causes of 
jealousy had arisen, and three or four of the Bear 
villages announced their intention of holding their 
Feast of the Dead apart from the rest. As such 
a procedure was thought abhorrent to every sense 
of propriet}^ and duty, the announcement excited 
an intense feeling ; yet Brebeuf, who was present, 
describes the debate which ensued as perfe'ctly 
calm, and wholly free from personal abuse or re- 
crimination. The secession, however, took place, 
and each party withdrew to its villages to gather 
and prepare its dead. 



1636.] DISINTERMENT. 73 

The corpses were lowered from their scaffolds, 
and lifted from their graves. Theh coverings were 
removed by certain functionaries appointed for the 
office, and the hideous relics arranged in a row, 
surrounded by the weeping, shriekmg, howling 
concourse. The spectacle was frightful. Here 
were all the village dead of the last twelve years. 
The priests, connoisseurs in such matters, regarded 
it as a display of mortality so edifying, that they 
hastened to summon their French attendants to 
contemplate and profit by it. Each family re- 
claimed its own, and immediately addressed itself to 
removing what remained of flesh from the bones. 
These, after being tenderly caressed, with tears and 
lamentations, were wrapped in skins and adorned 
with pendent robes of fur. In the belief of the 
mourners, they were sentient and conscious. A 
soul was thought still to reside in them.;^ and 
to this notion, very general among Indians, is in 
no small degree due that extravagant attachment 
to the remains of tliek dead, which may be said to 
mark the race. 

These relics of mortality, together with the re- 
cent corpses, — which were allowed to remain en- 
tire, but which were also wrapped carefully in furs, 
-were now carried to one of the largest houses, 
and hung to the numerous cross-poles, which, like 
rafters, supported the roof. Here the concourse 
of mom-ners seated themselves at a funeral feast ; 

1 In the general belief, tlie soul took flight after the great ceremony 
was ended. Many thought that there were two souls, one remaining with 
the bones, while the other went to the land of spirits 

7 



74 THE FEAST OE THE DEAD. [1G36 

and, as the squaws of the household distributed the 
food, a chief harangued the assembly, lamenting 
the loss of the deceased, and extolling their vhtues. 
This solemnity over, the mourners began their 
march for Ossossane, the scene of the final rite. 
The bodies remaining enthe were borne on a kuid 
of litter, while the bundles of bones were slung at 
the shoulders of the relatives, like fagots. Thus 
the procession slowly defiled along the forest path- 
ways, with which the country of the Hurons was 
everywhere intersected ; and as they passed be- 
neath the dull shadow of the pines, they uttered at 
intervals, in unison, a di'eary, wailing cry, designed 
to imitate the voices of disembodied souls wmging 
their way to the land of spirits, and belie^^d to have 
an efi"ect peculiarly soothing to the conscious relics 
which each man bore. When, at night, they stopped 
to rest. at some -sillage on the way, the inhabitants 
came forth to welcome them with a grave and 
mournful hospitality. 

From every town of the Nation of the Bear, — 
except the rebellious few that had seceded, — pro- 
cessions like this were convergmg towards Ossos- 
sane. This chief town of the Hurons stood on 
the eastern margin of Kottawassaga Bay, encom- 
passed with a gloomy wilderness of fir and pine. 
Thither, on the urgent in-^itation of the chiefs, the 
Jesuits repaked. The capacious bark houses were 
filled to overflowing, and the surrounding woods 
gleamed with camp-fires : for the processions of 
mourners were fast arriving, and the tlu'ong was 
swelled by invited guests of other tribes. Funeral 



1636.J THE GREAT SEPULCHRE. 75 

games were in progress, the young men and women 
practising archery and other exercises, for prizes 
offered by the mourners in the name of their dead 
relatives.^ Some of the chiefs conducted Brebeuf 
and his comjpanions to the place prepared for the 
ceremony. It was a cleared area in the forest, 
many acres in extent. In the midst was a pit, 
about ten feet deep and thirty feet wide. Around 
it was reared a high and strong scaffolding ; and 
on this were planted numerous upright poles, with 
cross-poles extended between, for hanging the fu- 
neral gifts and the remains of the dead. 

Meanwhile there was a long delay. The Jesuits 
were lodged in a house where more than a hundred 
of these bundles of mortality were hanging from the 
rafters. Some were mere shapeless rolls ; others 
were made up into clumsy effigies, adorned with 
feathers, beads, and belts of dyed porcupme-quills. 
Amidst this throng of the livmg and the dead, the 
priests spent a night which the imagination and 
the senses conspired to render almost insupport- 
able. 

At length the officiating chiefs gave the word to 
prepare for the ceremony. The relics were taken 
down, opened for the last time, and the bones ca- 
ressed and fondled by the women amid paroxysms 
of lamentation.^ Then all the processions were 

1 Funeral games were not confined to the Hurons and Iroquois : Fer- 
ret mentions having seen them among the Ottawas. An illustrated 
description of them will be found in Lafitau. 

2 "I'admiray la tendresse d'vne femme enuers son pere et ses enfans ; 
elle est fille d'vn Capitaine, qui est mort fort age', et a este' autrefois fort 
considerable dans le Pais ; elle luy peiguoit sa clieuelure, elle mauioit 



76 TILE FEAST OF THE DEAD. [1636. 

formed anew, and, each, bearing its dead, moved 
towards the area prepared for the last solemn rites. 
As they reached the ground, they defiled in order, 
each to a spot assigned to it, on the outer limits of 
the clearing. Here the bearers of the dead laid 
then* bundles on the ground, while those who car- 
ried the funeral gifts outspread and displayed them 
for the admiration of the beholders. Their number 
was immense, and their value relatively very great. 
Among them were many robes of beaver and other 
rich furs, collected and preserved for years, with a 
view to this festival. Fires were now lighted, ket- 
tles slung, and, around the entire circle of the 
clearing, the scene was like a fair or caravansary. 
This continued till three o'clock in the afternoon, 
when the gifts were repacked, and the bones shoul 
dered afresh. Suddenly, at a signal from the chiefs, 
the crowd ran forward from every side towards the 
scaffold, like soldiers to the assault of a town, scaled 
it by rude ladders with which it was furnished, 
and hung their relics and their gifts to the forest 
of poles Avhich surmounted it. Then the ladders 
were removed ; and a number of chiefs, standing 
on the scaffold, harangued the crowd below, praising 
the dead, and extoUmg the gifts, which the rela- 
tives of the departed now bestowed, in their names, 
upon their sur^dving friends. 

ses OS les vns apres les autres, auec la mesme aifection que si elle luy eust 
voiilu rendre la vie ; elle luy mit aupres de luy son AtsatoneSai, c'est 
k dire son pacquet de buchettes de Conseil, qui sent tous les liures et 
papiers du Pais. Pour ses petits enfans, elle leur mit des brasselets de 
Pourcelaine et de rassade aux bras, et baigna leurs os de ses larmes ; on 
ne Ten pouuoit quasi separer, mais on pressoit, et il fallut incontinent 
paltir." — Bre'beuf, Relation des Hurons, 1636, 134. 



1636.] EEENZY OF THE MOURNERS. 77 

During these harangues, other functionaries were 
lining the grave throughout with rich robes of 
beaver-skin. Three hirge copper kettles were next 
placed m the middle/ and then ensued a scene of 
hideous confusion. The bodies which had been 
left enthe were brought to the edge of the grave, 
flung in, and arranged in order at the bottom by 
ten or twelve Indians stationed there for the pur- 
pose, amid the wildest excitement and the uproar 
of many hundred muigled voices.^ When this part 
of the work was done, night was fast closing in. 
The concourse bivouacked around the clearing, and 
lighted then- camp-fires under the brows of the for- 
est which hedged in the scene of the dismal solem- 
nity. Brebeuf and his companions withdi'ew to 
the village, where, an hour before dawn, they were 
roused by a clamor which might have wakened the 
dead. One of the bundles of bones, tied to a pole 
on the scaffold, had chanced to fall into the grave. 
This accident had precipitated the closing act, and 
perhaps increased its frenzy. Guided by the un- 
earthly din, and the broad glare of flames fed with 
heaps of fat pure logs, the priests soon reached the 
spot, and saw what seemed, in thek eyes, an image 
of Hell. All around blazed countless fires, and 

1 In some of these graves, recently discovered, five or six large 
copper kettles have been found, in a position corresponding with the 
account of Brebeuf. In one, there were no less than twenty-six ket- 
tles. 

2 " Jamais rien ne m'a mieux figure la confusion qui est parmy les 
damnez. Vous eussiez veu decharger de tons costez des corps a demy 
pourris, et de tous costez on entendoit vn horrible tuitamarre de voix con- 
fuses de personnes qui parloient et ne s'entendoient pas." — Brebeuf, 
Rdation des Hurons, 1636, 135. 

7* 



78 THE FEAST OF THE DEAD. [1635. 

the air resounded with discordant outcries.^ The 
naked multitude, on, under, and around the scaffold, 
were ilmging the remains of their dead, discharged 
from their envelopments of skins, pell-mell into 
the pit, where Brebeuf discerned men who, as the 
ghastly shower fell around them, arranged the hones 
in their places with long poles. All was soon over ; 
earth, logs, and stones were cast upon the grave, 
and the clamor subsided into a funereal chant, — so 
dreary and lugubrious, that it seemed to the Jesuits 
the wail of despau'ing souls from the abyss of per- 
dition.^ 

Such was the origin of one of those strange sep- 
ulchres which are the wonder and perplexity of 
the modern settler in the abandoned forests of the 
Hurons. 

1 "Approchans, nous vismes tout k. fait une image de I'Enfer: cette 
grande place estoit toute reraplie de feux & de flammes, & I'air retentis- 
soit de toutes parts des voix confuses de ces Barbares," etc. — Brebeuf, 
Relation des Ilurons, 1636, 209 (Cramoisy). 

2 " Se niirent a chanter, mais d'un ton si lamentable & si lugubre, 
qu'il nous representoit I'liorrible tristesse & I'abysme du desespoir dans 
lequel sont plonge'es pour iamais ces ames malheureuses." — Ibid., 210. 

For other descriptions of these rites, see Charlevoix, Bressani, Du 
Creux, and especially Lafitau, in whose work they are illustrated with 
engravings. In one form or another, they were widely prevalent. Bar- 
tram found them among the Floridian tribes. Traces of a similar prac- 
tice have been observed in recent times among the Dacotahs. Eemains 
of places of sepulture, evidently of kindred origin, have been found in 
Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky, and Ohio. Many have been discovered 
in several parts of New York, especially near the "River Niagara. (See 
Squier, Aboriginal Monuments of New York.) This was the eastern extrem- 
ity of the ancient territory of the Neuters. One of these deposits is said 
to have contained the bones of several thousand individuals. There is 
a large mound on Tonawanda Island, said by the modern Senecas to be a 
Neuter burial-place. (See Marshall, Historical Sketches of the Niagara 
Frontier, 8.) In Canada West, they are found throughout the region 
»nce occupied by the Neuters, and are frequent in the Huron district. 

Dr. Tache writes to me, — "I have inspected sixteen hone-pits," (in 



1636.1 THE IROQUOIS PEISONER. 79 

The priests were soon to witness another and a 
more terrible rite, yet one in which they found 
a consolation, since it signalized the saving of a 
soul, — the snatching from perdition of one of that 
dreaded race, into whose very midst they hoped, 
with devoted daring, to bear hereafter the cross of 
salvation. A band of Huron warriors had sur 
prised a small party of Iroquois, killed several, and 
caj^tured the rest. One of the prisoners was led in 
triumph to a village where the priests then were. 
He had suffered greatly ; his hands, especially, 
were frightfully lacerated. Now, however, he was 
received with every mark of kindness, " Take 
courage," said a chief, addressing him; "you are 

the Huron country,) "the situation of which is indicated on the little 
pencil map I send you. They contain from six hundred to twelve hun- 
dred skeletons each, of both sexes and all ages, all mixed together pur- 
posely. AVith one exception, these pits also contain pipes of stone or clay, 
small earthen pots, shells, and wampum wrought of these shells, copper 
ornaments, beads of glass, and other ti-inkets. Some pits contained arti- 
cles of copper of aboriginal Mexican fabric." 

This remarkable fact, together with the frequent occurrence in these 
graves of large conch-shells, of which wampum was made, and which 
could have been procured only from the Gulf of Mexico, or some part of 
the sou hern coast of the United States, proves the extent of the relations 
of traffic by wlaich certain articles were passed from tribe to ti'ibe over a 
vast region. The transmission of pipes from the famous Eed Pipe-Stono 
Quarry of the St. Peter's to tribes more than a thousand miles distant la 
an analogous modern instance, though much less remarkable. 

The Tache Museum, at the Laval University of Quebec, contains a 
large collection of remains from these graves. In one instance, the hu- 
man bones are of a size that may be called gigantic. 

In nearly every case, the Huron graves contain articles of use or 
ornament of European workmanship. From this it may be inferred, that 
the nation itself, or its practice of inhumation, does not date back to a 
period long before the arrival of the French. 

The Northern Algonquins had also a solemn Feast of the Dead ; but 
it was widely different from that of the Hurons. — See the very curioua 
account of it by Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1642, 94, 95. 



HO THE FEAST OF THE DEAD. [1637. 

among friends." The best food was prepared for 
him, and his captors vied with each other in offices 
of good-will.^ He had been given, according to 
Indian custom, to a warrior who had lost a near 
relative in battle, and the captive was supposed to 
be adopted in place of the slain. His actual doom 
was, however, not for a moment in doubt. The 
Huron received him affectionately, and, having 
seated him in his lodge, addressed him in a tone 
of extreme kindness. " My nephew, when I heard 
that you were coming, I was very glad, thinking 
that you would remain with me . to take the place 
of him I have lost. But now that I see your con- 
dition, and your hands crushed and torn so that 
you will never use them, I change my mind. 
Therefore take courage, and prepare to die to- 
night like a brave man." 

The prisoner coolly asked what should be the 
manner of his death. 

" By fire," was the reply. 

" It is well," returned the Iroquois. 

Meanwhile, the sister of the slain Huron, in 
whose place the prisoner was to have been adopted, 
brought him a dish of food, and, her eyes flowing 
with tears, placed it before him with an air of 
the utmost tenderness ; while, at the same time, the 
warrior brought him a pipe, wiped the sweat from 
his brow, and fanned him with a fan of feathers. 

About noon he gave his farewell feast, after the 

1 This pretended kindness in the treatment of a prisoner destined to 
the torture was not exceptional. The Hurons sometimes even supiilied 
their intended victim witli a temporary wife. 



I 



1637.J THE SACRIFICE. 81 

custom of those who knew themselves to be at 
the pomt of death. All were welcome to this 
strange banquet; and when the company were 
gathered, the host addressed them in a loud, firm 
voice : " My brothers, I am about to die. Do your 
worst to me. I do not fear torture or death." 
Some of those present seemed to have visitings of 
real compassion; and a woman asked the priests 
if it would be wrong to kill him, and thus save 
him from the fire. 

The Jesuits had from the first lost no opportunity 
of accosting him ; while he, grateful for a genuine 
kindness amid the cruel hypocrisy that surrounded 
him, gave them an attentive ear, till at length, 
satisfied with his answers, they baptized him. His 
eternal bliss secure, all else was as nothing ; and 
they awaited the issue with some degree of com- 
posure. 

A crowd had gathered from all the surround 
ing towns, and after nightfall the presiding chief 
harangued them, exhorting them to act their parts 
well in the approaching sacrifice, since they would 
be looked upon by the Sun and the God of War.^ 
It is needless to dwell on the scene that en- 
sued. It took place in the lodge of the great war- 
chief, Atsan. Eleven fires blazed on the ground, 
along the middle of this capacious dwelling. The 
platforms on each side were closely packed with 
spectators ; and, betwixt these and the fii'es, the 

i Areskoui (see Introduction). He was often regarded as identical 
with the Sun. The semi-sacrificial character of the torture in this case 
is also shown by the injunction, " que pour ceste nuict on n'allast point 
folastrer dans les bois." — Le Mercier, Relation des Hurons, 1637, 114. 



82 THE FEAST OF THE DEAD. [1637. 

younger warriors stood in lines, each bearing 
lighted pme-knots or rolls of birch-bark. The 
heat, the smoke, the glare of flames, the wild yells, 
contorted visages, and farious gestures of these 
human devils, as their victim, goaded by their 
torches, bounded through the fires again and again, 
from end to end of the house, transfixed the priests 
with horror. But when, as day dawned, the last 
spark of life had fled, they consoled themselves 
with the faith that the tortured wretch had found 
his rest at last in Paradise.^ 

1 Le Mercier's long and minute account of the torture of this prisoner 
is too revolting to be dwelt upon. One of the most atrocious features of 
the scene was tlie alternation of raillery and ironical compliment which 
attended it tlirougliout, as well as the pains taken to preserve life and 
consciousness in the victim as long as possible. Portions of liis fleah 
were afterwards devoured. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

1636, 1637. 
THE HURON AND THE JESUIT. 

Enthusiasm for the Mission. — Sickness of the Pkiests. — The 
Pest among the Hueons. — The Jesuit on his Rounds. — 
Efforts at Conversion. — Priests and Sorcerers. — The 
Man-Devil. — The Magician's Prescription. — Indian Doc- 
tors AND Patients. — Covert Baptisms. — Self-Devotion of 
the Jesuits. 

Meanwhile from Old France to New came suc- 
cors and reinforcements to the missions of the 
forest. More Jesuits crossed the sea to urge on 
the work of conversion. These were no stern 
exiles, seeking on barbarous shores an asylum for 
a persecuted faith. Rank, wealth, power, and 
royalty itself, smiled on their enterprise, and bade 
them God-speed. Yet, withal, a fervor more 
intense, a self-abnegation more complete, a self- 
devotion more constant and enduring, will scarcely 
find its record on the page of human history. 

Holy Mother Church, linked in sordid wedlock 
to governments and thrones, numbered among her 
servants a host of the worldly and the proud, 
whose service of God was but the service of them 

[831 



84 THE HURON AXD THE JESUIT. [1636 

selves, — and many, too, who, in the sophistry of 
the human heart, thought themselves true soldiers 
of Heaven, while earthly pride, interest, and pas- 
sion were the life-springs of their zeal. This 
mighty Church of Rome, in her imposing march 
along the high road of history, heralded as infal- 
lible and divine, astounds the gazing world with 
prodigies of contradiction : now the protector of 
the oppressed, now the right arm of tyrants ; now 
breathing charity and love, now dark with the pas- 
sions of Hell ; now beaming with celestial truth, 
now masked in hypocrisy and lies ; noAv a virgin, 
now a harlot ; an imperial queen, and a tinselled 
actress. Clearly, she is of earth, not of heaven ; 
and her transcendently dramatic life is a type of 
the good and ill, the baseness and nobleness, the 
foulness and purity, the love and hate, the pride, 
passion, truth, falsehood, fierceness, and tender- 
ness, that battle in the restless heart of man. 

It was her nobler and purer part that gave life to 
the early missions of New France. That gloomy 
wilderness, those hordes of savages, had nothing to 
tempt the ambitious, the proud, the grasping, or the 
indolent. Obscure toil, solitude, privation, hard- 
ship, and death were to be the missionary's portion. 
He who set sail for the country of the Hurons left 
behind him the world and all its prizes. True, 
he acted under orders, — obedient, like a soldier, 
to the word of command : but the astute Society 
of Jesus knew its members, weighed each in the 
balance, gave each his fitting task ; and when the 
word was passed to embark for New France, it was 



1636.] ENTHUSIASM FOE THE MISSION. 85 

but the response to a secret longing of the fervent 
heart. The letters of these priests, departing for 
the scene of their labors, breathe a spirit of enthu- 
siastic exaltation, which, to a colder nature and a 
colder faith, may sometimes seem overstrained, but 
which is in ho way disproportionate to the vastness 
of the effort and the sacrifice demanded of them.^ 

All turned with longing eyes towards the mission 
of the Hurons ; for here the largest harvest prom- 
ised to repay their labor, and here hardships and 
dangers most abounded. Two Jesuits, Pijart and 
Le Mercier, had been sent thither in 1635 ; and in 
midsummer of the next year three more arrived, — 



1 The following are passages from letters of missionaries at this time. 
See "Divers Sentimens," appended to the Relation of 1635. 

" On dit que les premiers qui fondent les Eglises d' ordinaire sont 
sainets : cette pensee m'attendrit si fort le coeur, que quoy que ie me 
Toye icy fort inutile dans ceste fortunee Nouuelle France, si faut-il que 
i'auoiie que ie ne me s9aurois defendre d'vne pensee qui me presse le 
coeur : Cupio impendi, et superimpendi pro vobis, Pauure Nouuelle France, 
ie desire me sacrifier pour ton bien, et quand il me deuroit couster mille 
vies, moyennant que ie puisse aider a sauuer vne seule ame, ie seray trop 
heureux, et ma vie tres bien employee." 

" Ma consolation parmy les Hurons, c'est que tons les iours ie me con- 
fesse, et puis ie dis la Messe, comme si ie deuois prendre le Viatique et 
mourir ce iour la, et ie ne crois pas qu'on puisse mieux viure, ny auec 
plus de satisfaction et de courage, et mesme de merites, que viure en un 
lieu, oil on pense pouuoir mourir tons les iours, et auoir la deuise de S. 
Paul, Quotidie morior,fratres, etc. mes freres, ie fais estat de mourir tons 
les iours." 

" Qui ne void la Nouuelle France que par les yeux de chair et de 
nature, il n'y void que des bois et des croix ; mais qui les considere auec 
les yeux de la grace et d'vne bonne vocation, il n'y void que Dieu, les 
vertus et les graces, et on y trouue tant et de si solides consolations, que 
si ie pouuois acheter la Nouuelle France, en donnant tout le Paradis 
Terrestre, certainement ie I'acheterois. Mon Dieu, qu'il fait bon estre au 
lieu oil Dieu nous a mis de sa grace ! veritablement i'ay trouue icy co 
que i'auois espere, vn cceur selon le coeur de Dieu, qui ne clierche que 
Dieu " 

8 



86 THE HURON AND THE JESUIT. [1636. 

Jogues, Chatelain, and Gamier. When, after their 
long and lonely journey, they reached Ihonatiria 
one by one, they were received by their brethren 
with scanty fare indeed, but with a fervor of affec- 
tionate welcome which more than made amends ; 
for among these priests, united in a commimity of 
faith and enthusiasm, there was far more than the 
genial comradeship of men joined in a common 
enterprise of self-devotion and peril.^ On their 
way, they had met Daniel and Davost descending 
to Quebec, to establish there a seminary of Huron 
children, — a project long cherished by Brebeuf 
and his companions. 

Scarcely had the new-comers arrived, when they 
Avere attacked by a contagious fever, which turned 
their mission-house into a hospital. Jogues, Gar- 
nier, and Chatelain fell ill in turn; and two of 
their domestics also were soon prostrated, though 
the only one of the number who could hunt fortu- 
nately escaped. Those who remained in health at- 
tended the sick, and the sufferers vied with each 
other in efforts often beyond then' strength to re- 
lieve their companions in misfortune.^ The disease 
in no case proved fatal ; but scarcely had health 

1 " le luy preparay de ce que nous auions, pour le receuoir, mais quel 
festin ! vne poignee de petit poisson sec auec vn peu de farine ; i'enuoyay 
chercher quelques nouueaux espies, que nous luy fismes rostir a la fa9on 
du pays; mais 11 est vray que dans son ccEur et a I'entendre, il ne fit 
ianiais meilleure chere. La ioye qui se ressent a ces entreueues semble- 
estre quelque image du contentement des bien-heureux h. leur arriuee 
dans le Ciel, tant elle est pleine de suauite." — Le Mercier, Relation des 
Eurons, 1637, 106. 

2 Lettre de Breteuf au T. R. P. Mutio VitellescM, 20 Mai, 1637, in 
Carayon, 157. Le Mercier, Relation desRurons, 1637, 120, 123. 



1636-37.] PESTILENCE AMONG THE HURONS. 87 

begun to return to their household, when an unfore- 
seen calamity demanded the exertion of all their 
energies. 

The pestilence, which for two years past had 
from time to tiine visited the Huron towns, now 
returned with tenfold violence, and with it soon 
appeared a new and fearful scourge, — the small- 
pox. Terror was universal. The contagion in- 
creased as autumn advanced ; and when winter 
came, far from ceasing, as the priests had hoped, 
its ravages were appalling. The season of Huron 
festivity was turned to a season of mourning ; and 
such was the despondency and dismay, that suicide 
became frequent. The Jesuits, singly or in pau's, 
journeyed in the depth of winter from village to 
village, ministering to the sick, and seeking to com- 
mend their religious teachings by their efforts to 
relieve bodily distress. Happily, perhaps, for their 
patieiits, they had no medicine but a little senna. 
A few raisins were left, however ; and one or two 
of these, with a spoonful of sweetened water, were 
always eagerly accepted by the sufferers, who thought 
them endowed with some mysterious and sovereign 
efficacy. No house was left unvisited. As the mis- 
sionary, physician at once to body and soul, entered 
one of these smoky dens, he saw the inmates, their 
heads muffled in their robes of skins, seated around 
the fires in silent dejection. Everywhere was heard 
the wail of sick and dying children ; and on or 
under the platforms at the sides of the house 
crouched squalid men and women, in all the stages 
of the distemper. The Father approached, made 



88 THE HURON AND THE JESUIT. [1636-37. 

inquiries, spoke words of kindness, administered 
his harmless remedies, or offered a boAvl of broth 
made from game brought in by the Frenchman 
who hunted for the mission.^ The body cared 
for, he next addressed himself to the so\d. '• This 
life is short, and very miserable. It matters little 
whether we live or die." The patient remained 
silent, or grumbled his dissent. The Jesuit, after 
enlarging for a time, in broken Huron, on the 
brevity and nothingness of mortal weal or woe, 
j)assed next to the joys of Heaven and the pains 
of Hell, which he set forth with his best rhetoric. 
His pictures of infernal fires and torturing devils 
were readily comprehended, if the listener had 
consciousness enough to comprehend anything ; 
but with respect to the advantages of the French 
Paradise, he was slow of conviction. " I wish to 
go where my relations and ancestors have gone," 
was a common reply. " Heaven is a good place 
for Frenchmen," said another ; " but I wish to be 
among Indians, for the French will give me nothing 
to eat when I get there." ^ Often the patient was 
stolidly silent; sometimes he was hopelessly per- 
verse and contradictory. Again, Nature triumplied 
over, Grace. " Which will you choose," demanded 

1 Game was so scarce in the Huron country, that it was greatly prized 
as a luxury. Le Mercier speaks of an Indian, sixty years of age, who 
walked twelve miles to taste the wild-fowl killed by the French hunter 
The ordinary food was corn, beans, pumpkins, and fish. 

2 It was scarcely possible to convince the Indians, that there was but 
one God for themselves and the whites. The proposition was met by 
such arguments as this : " If we had been of one father, we should know 
how to make knives and coats as well as you." — Le Mercier, Relation dps 
Hurons, 1687, 147. 



1036-37.] DEATH-BED CONVERSIONS. 89 

the priest of a dying woman, " Heaven or Hell ? " 
" Hell, if my cliildi'en are there, as you say," re- 
turned the mother. " Do they hunt in Heaven, 
or make war, or go to feasts 1 " asked an anxious 
inquirer. " Oh, no ! " replied the Father. " Then," 
returned the querist, " I will not go. It is not 
good to be lazy." But above all other obstacles 
was the dread of starvation in the regions of the 
blest. Nor, when the dying Indian had been in- 
duced at last to express a desire for Paradise, was 
it an easy matter to bring him to a due contri- 
tion for his sins ; for he would deny with indig- 
nation that he had ever committed any. "When 
at length, as sometimes happened, all these diffi- 
culties gave way, and the patient had been brought 
to what seemed to his instructor a fitting frame for 
baptism, the priest, with contentment at his heart, 
brought water in a cup or in the hollow of his 
hand, touched his forehead with the mystic drop, 
and snatched him from an eternity of woe. But 
the convert, even after his baptism, did not always 
manifest a satisfactory spiritual condition. " Why 
did you baptize that Iroquois V asked one of the 
dying neophytes, speaking of the prisoner recently 
tortured ; "he will get to Heaven before us, and, 
when he sees us coming, he will drive us out." ^ 

Thus did these worthy priests, too conscientious 
to let these unfortunates die in peace,* follow them 
with benevolent persecutions to the hour of their 
death. 

1 Most of the above traits are drawn from Le Mercier's report of 1687 
The rest are from Brebeuf. 

8* 



90 THE HURON AND THE JESUIT. [1636-37. 

It was clear to the Fathers, that "their minis- 
trations were vahied solely because their religion 
was supposed by many to be a " medicine," or 
charm, efficacious agamst famine, disease, and 
death. They themselves, indeed, firmly believed 
that saints and angels were always at hand with 
temporal succors for the faithful. At their inter- 
cession, St. Joseph had interposed to procure a 
happy delivery to a squaw in protracted pains of 
childbu'th ; ^ and they never doubted, that, in the 
hour of need, the celestial powers would confound 
the unbeliever Avith intervention direct and mani- 
fest. At the town of Wenrio, the people, after 
trying in vain all the feasts, dances, and prepos- 
terous ceremonies by which their medicine-men 
sought to stop the pest, resolved to essay the 
" medicine " of the French, and, to that end, called 
the priests to a council. " What must we do, that 
your God may take pity on us"?" Brebeuf's an- 
swer was uncompromising : — 

" Believe in Him ; keep His commandments ; 
abjure your faith in dreams ; take but one wife, 
and be true to her ; give up your superstitious 
feasts ; renounce your assemblies of debauchery ; 
eat no human flesh ; never give feasts to demons ; 
and make a vow, that, if God will deliver you from 
this pest, you will build a chapel to offer Him 
thanksgiving* and praise."^ 

The terms were too hard. They would fain bar- 

1 Brebeuf, Relation des Hiirons, 1636, 89. Another woman was deliy- 
ered on touching a reUc of St. Ignatius. Ibid., 90. 

2 Le Mercier, Relation des Hurons, 1637, 114, 116 (Cramoisy) 



1636-37.] PRIESTS AND SORCERERS. 91 

gain to be let off with building the chapel alone ; 
but Brebeuf would bate them nothing, and the 
council broke up in despair. 

At Ossossane, a few miles distant, the people, 
in a frenzy of terror, accepted the conditions, and 
promised to renounce their superstitions and reform 
their manners. It was a labor of Hercules, a 
cleansing of Augean stables ; but the scared sav- 
ages were ready to make any promise that might 
stay the pestilence. One of their principal sor- 
cerers proclaimed in a loud voice through the 
streets of the to^vn, that the God of the French 
was their master, and that thenceforth all must 
live according to His will. " What consolation," 
exclaims Le Mercier, " to see God glorified by the 
lips of an imp of Satan ! " ^ 

Their joy was short. The proclamation was on 
the twelfth of December. On the twenty-first, a 
noted sorcerer came to Ossossane. He was of a 
dwarfish, hump-backed figure, — most rare among 
this symmetrical people, — with a vicious face, and 
a dress consisting of a torn and shabby robe of bea- 
ver-skin. Scarcely had he arrived, when, with ten 
or twelve other savages, he ensconced himself in a 
kennel of bark made for the occasion. In the midst 
were placed several stones, heated red-hot. On 
these the sorcerer threw tobacco, producing a sti- 
fling fumigation ; in the midst of which, for a full 
half-hour, he sang, at the top of his throat, those 
boastful, yet meaningless, rhapsodies of which In- 
dian magical songs are composed. Then came 

i Le Mprcier, Relation des Hurons, 1687, 127, 128.(Cramoisy). • 



92 THE HUEON AND THE JESUIT. 163G-37. 

a grand "medicine-feast"; and the disappointed 
Jesuits saw plainly that the objects of their spir- 
itual care, unwilling to throw away any chance of 
cure, were bent on invoking aid from God and the 
Devil at once. 

The hump-backed sorcerer became a thorn in 
tlie side of the Fathers, who more than half be- 
lieved his own account of his origin. He was, he 
said, not a man, but an oH, — a spirit, or, as the 
priests rendered it, a demon, — and had dwelt with 
other oJcies under the earth, when the whim seized 
him to become a man. Therefore he ascended to 
the upper world, in company with a female sphit. 
They hid beside a path, and, when they saw a 
woman passing, they entered her womb. After a 
time they were born, but not until the male oTci 
had quarrelled with and strangled his female com- 
panion, who came dead into the world.^ The 
character of the sorcerer seems to have comport- 
ed reasonably well with this story of his origin. 
He pretended to have an absolute control over 
the pestilence, and his prescriptions were scrupu- 
lously followed. 

He had several conspicuous rivals, besides a 
host of humbler competitors. One of these ma- 
gician-doctors, who was nearly bhnd, made for 
himself a kennel at the end of his house, where he 
fasted for seven days.^ On the sixth day the spir- 
its appeared, and, among other revelations, told 

1 Le Mercier, Relation des Hurons, 1637, 72 (Cramoisy). Tliis "petit 
sorcier " is often mentioned elsewhere. 

2 See Introduction. 



1636-37.] INDIAN DOCTORS AND PATIENTS. 93 

him that the disease could be frightened away by 
means of images of straw, like scarecrows, placed 
on the tops of the houses. Within forty-eight 
hours after this announcement, the roofs of Onnen- 
tisati and the rieighboring villages were covered 
with an army of these effigies. The Indians tried 
to persuade the Jesuits to put them on the mis- 
sion-house ; but the priests replied, that the cross 
before their door was a better protector ; and, for 
further security, they set another on their roof, 
declaring that they would rely on it to save them 
from infection.^ The Indians, on their part, anx- 
ious that their scarecrows should do their office 
well, addressed them in loud harangues and burned 
offerings of tobacco to them.^ 

There was another sorcerer, whose medical prac- 
tice was so extensive, that, unable to attend to all 
his patients, he sent substitutes to the surrounding 
towns, fii'st imparting to them his own mysterious 
power. One of these deputies came to Ossossane 
while the priests w^ere there. The principal house 
was thronged with expectant savages, anxiously 
waiting his arrival. A chief carried before him a 
kettle of mystic water, with which the envoy sprin- 
kled the company,^ at the same time fanning them 

1 " Qu'en vertu de ce signe nous ne redoutions point les demons, et 
esperions que Dieu preserueroit nostre petite maison de cette maladie 
fiontagieuse." — Le Mercier, Relation des Hurons, 1687, 150. 

2 Ibid., 157. 

3 Tiie idea seems to have been taken from tlie holy water of the 
French. Le Mercier says that a Huron who had been to Quebec once 
asked him the use of the vase of water at the door of the chapel. The 
priest told him that it was "to frighten away the devils." On this, he 
begged earnestly to have some of it. 



94 THE HURON AND THE JESXHT. [1636-37. 

with the wing of a wild turkey. Then came a 
grand medicine-feast, followed by a medicine-dance 
of women. 

Opinion was divided as to the nature of the 
pest ; but the greater number were agreed that it 
was a malignant oTci^ who came from Lake Huron.^ 
As it was of the last moment to conciliate or 
frighten him, no means to these ends were neglect- 
ed. Feasts were held for him, at which, to do 
him honor, each guest gorged himself like a vul- 
ture. A mystic fraternity danced with firebrands 
in their mouths ; while other dancers wore masks, 
and pretended to be hump-backed. Tobacco was 
burned to the Demon of the Pest, no less than to 
the scarecrows which were to frighten him. A 
chief climbed to the roof of a house, and shouted 
to the invisible monster, " If you want flesh, go to 
our enemies, go to the Iroquois ! " — while, to add 
terror to persuasion, the crowd" in the dwelluig 
below yelled with all the force of their lungs, 
and beat furiously with sticks on the walls of 
bark. 

Besides these public eff"orts to stay the pestilence, 
the sufferers, each for himself, had their own meth- 
ods of cure, dictated by dreams or prescribed by 
established usage. Thus two of the priests, enter- 

^ Many believed that the country was bewitched by wicked sorcerers, 
one of whom, it was said, had been seen at night roaming around the 
villages, vomiting fire. (Le Mercier, Relation des Hurons, 1637, 134.) 
This superstition of sorcerers vomiting fire was common among the Iro- 
quois of New York. — Others held that a sister of £tienne Brule caused 
the evil, in revenge for the death of her brother, murdered some years 
before. She was said to have been seen flying over the coxmtry, breath- 
ing forth pestilence. 



1636-37.] THE JESUITS ON THEIR ROUNDS. 95 

mg a house, saw a sick man crouclied. in a corner, 
while near him sat three friends. Before each of 
these was placed a huge portion of food, — enough, 
the witness declares, for four, — and though all 
were gorged to suffocation, with starting eyeballs 
and distended veins, they still held staunchly to 
their task, resolved at all costs to devour the whole, 
in order to cure the patient, who meanwhile ceased 
not, in feeble tones, to praise their exertions, and 
implore them to persevere.^ 

Turning from these eccentricities of the "noble 
savage " ^ to the zealots who were toiling, according 
to their light, to snatch him from the clutch of Sa- 
tan, we see the irrepressible Jesuits roaming from 
town to town in restless quest of subjects for bap- 
tism. In the case of adults, they thought some little 
preparation essential ; but their efforts to this end, 
even with the aid of St. Joseph, whom they con- 
stantly invoked,^ were not always successful; and, 

1 " En fin il leur fallut rendre gorge, ce qu'ils firent k diuerses reprises, 
ne laissants pas pour cela de continuer a vuider leur plat." — Le Mercier, 
Relation des Hurons, 1637, 142. — This beastly superstition exists in some 
tribes at the present day. A kindred superstition once fell under the 
writer's notice, in the case of a wounded Indian, who begged of every one 
he met to drink a large bowl of water, in order that he, the Indian, might 
be cured. 

2 In the midst of these absurdities we find recorded one of the best 
traits of the Indian character. At Ihonatiria, a house occupied by a 
family of orphan children was burned to the ground, leaving the inmates 
destitute. The villagers united to aid them. Each contributed some- 
thing, and they were soon better provided for than before. 

* " C'est nostre refuge ordinaire en semblables necessitez, et d'ordi- 
naire a lec tels succez, que nous auons sujet d'en benir Dieu a iamais, qui 
nous fait cognoistre en cette barbarie le credit de ce S. Patriarche aupres 
de son infinie misericorde." — Ibid., 153. — In the case of a woman at On- 
nentisati, " Dieu nous inspira de luy vouer quelques Messes en I'lionneur 
de S. Joseph." The effect was prompt. In half an hour the woman was 



96 THE HURON AND THE JESUIT. [1636-37. 

cheaply as they offered salvation, they sometimes 
failed to find a purchaser. With infants, however, 
a simple drop of water sufficed for the transfer 
from a prospective Hell to an assured Paradise. 
The Indians, who at first had sought baptism as a 
cure, now began to regard it as a cause of death ; 
and when the priest entered a lodge where a sick 
child lay in extremity, the scowling parents watched 
him with jealous distrust, lest unawares the deadly 
drop should be applied. The Jesuits were equal 
to the emergency. Father Le Mercier will best 
tell his own story. 

" On the third of May, Father Pierre Pijart 
baptized at Anonatea a little child two months old, 
in manifest danger of death, without being seen 
by the parents, who would not give their consent. 
This is the device which he used. Our sugar does 
^venders for us. He pretended to make the child 
drink a little sugared water, and at the same time 
dipped a finger in it. As the father of the infant 
began to suspect something, and called out to him 
not to baptize it, he gave the spoon to a woman 
who was near, and said to her, ' Give it to him 
yourself.' She approached and found the child 
asleep ; and at the same time Father Pijart, un- 
der pretence of seeing if he was really asleep, 
touched his face with his wet finger, and baptized 
him. At the end of forty-eight hours he went to 
Heaven. 

ready for baptism. On the same page we have another subject secured 
to Heaven, "sans doute par les merites du glorieux Patriarche S. Jo- 
aeph." 



1036-37. 1 COVERT BAPTISM. 97 

" Some days before, the missionary had used the 
same device (indusirie) for baptizing a little boy 
six or seven years old. His father, who was very 
sick, had several times refused to receive baptism ; 
and when asked if he would not be glad to have 
his son baptized, he had answered, JSfo. 'At least,' 
said Father Pijart, 'you will not object to my giving 
him a little sugar.' ' No ; but you must not bap- 
tize him.' The missionary gave it to him once; 
then again ; and at the third spoonful, before he 
had put the sugar into the water, he let a drop of 
it fall on the child, at the same time pronouncing 
the sacramental words. A little girl, who was 
looking at him, cried out, ' Father, he is baptiz- 
ing him ! ' The child's father was much disturbed ; 
but the missionary said to him, ' Did you not see 
that I was giving him sugar 1 ' The child died soon 
after; but God showed His grace to the father, 
who is now in perfect health."^ 

That equivocal morality, lashed by the withering 
satire of Pascal, — a morality built on the doctrine 
that all means are permissible for saving souls from 
perdition, and that sin itself is no sin when its 
object is the "greater glory of God," — found far 
less scope in the rude wilderness of the Hui'ons 
than among the interests, ambitions, and passions 
of civilized life. Nor were these men, chosen from 
the purest of their Order, personally well fitted 
to illustrate the capabilities of this elastic system. 
Yet now and then, by the light of their own writ- 

1 Le Mercier, Relation des Hurons, 1637, 165. Various other caaes^ of 
the kmcl are mentioned in the Relations. 

9 



98 THE HURON AND THE JESUIT. [1636-37. 

ings, we may observe that the teachings of the 
school of Loyola had not been wholly without 
effect in the formation of their ethics. 

But when we see them, in the gloomy February 
of 1637, and the gloomier months that followed, 
toiling on foot from one infected town to another, 
wading through the sodden snow, under the bare 
and di'ipping forests, drenched with incessant rains, 
till they descried at length through the storm the 
clustered dwellings of some barbarous hamlet, — 
when we see them entering, one after another, 
these wretched abodes of misery and darkness, and 
all for one sole end, the baptism of the sick and 
dying, we may smile at the futility of the object, 
but we must needs admire the self-sacrificing zeal 
with which it was pursued. 



CHAPTER IX. 

1637. 
CHARACTER OF THE CANADIAN JESUITS. 

Jeav de Brebeuf. — Charles Garnier. — Joseph Marie Chaumo- 
NOT. — Noel Chabanel. — Isaac Jogues. — Other Jesuits. — 
Nature op their Faith. — Supernaturalism. — Visions. — 
Miracles. 

Before pursuing farther these obscure, but note- 
worthy, scenes in the drama of human history, it 
will be well to indicate, so far as there are means 
of doing so, the distinctive traits of some of the 
chief actors. Mention has often been made of 
Brebeuf, — that masculine apostle of the Faith, — 
the Ajax of the mission. Nature had given him all 
the passions of a vigorous manhood, and religion 
had crushed them, curbed them, or tamed them to 
,do her work, — like a dammed-up torrent, sluiced 
and guided to grind and saw and weave for the 
good of man. Beside him, in strange contrast, 
stands his co-laborer, Charles Garnier. Both were 
of noble birth and gentle nurture ; but here the 
parallel ends. Garnier's face was beardless, though 
he was above thirty years old. For this he was 
laughed at by his friends in Paris, but admired by 

[991 



* 



100 CHARACTER OF THE CANADIAN JESUITS. [1637. 

the Indians, who thought him handsome.^ His 
constitution, bodily or mental, was by no means 
robust. From boyhood, he had shown a delicate 
and sensitive nature, a tender conscience, and a 
proneness to religious emotion. He had never 
gone with his schoolmates to inns and other places 
of amusement, but kept his pocket-money to give to 
beggars. One of his brothers relates of him, that, 
seeing an obscene book, he bought and destroyed 
it, lest other boys should be injured by it. He had 
always wished to be a Jesuit, and, after a novitiate 
which is described as most edifying, he became a 
professed member of the Order. The Church, in- 
deed, absorbed the greater part, if not the whole, 
of this pious family, — one brother being a Carmel- 
ite, another a Capuchin, and a third a Jesuit, while 
there seems also to have been a fourth under voavs. 
Of Charles Garnier there remain twenty-four let- 
ters, written at various times to his father and two 
of his brothers, chiefly during his missionary life 
among the Hurons. They breathe the deepest and 
most intense Roman Catholic piety, and a spirit 
enthusiastic, yet sad, as of one renouncing all 
the hopes and prizes of the world, and living for 
Heaven alone. The afl'ections of his sensitive na-^ 
ture, severed from earthly objects, found relief in 
an ardent adoration of the Virgin Mary. With 
none of the bone and sinew of rugged manhood, 
he entered, not only without hesitation, but with 

1 " C'est pourquoi j'ai bien gagne i quitter la France, ou tous me 
fesiez la guerre de n'avoir point de barbe ; car c'est ce qui me fait estimer 
beau des Sauvages." — Lettres de Ga-nier, MSS. 



1637.] JOSEPH MARIE CHAUMONOT. 101 

eagerness, on a life which would have tried the 
boldest; and, sustained by the spirit within him, 
he was more than equal to it. His fellow-mission- 
aries thought him a saint ; and had he lived a 
century or two earlier, he would perhaps have 
been canonized : yet, while all his life was a will- 
ing martyrdom, one can discern, amid his admira- 
ble virtues, some slight lingerings of mortal vanity. 
Thus, in three several letters, he speaks of his great 
success m baptizing, and plainly intimates that he 
had sent more souls to Heaven than the other 
Jesuits.^ 

Next appears a young man of about twenty- 
seven years, Joseph Marie Chaumonot. Unlike 
Brebeuf and Garnier, he was of humble origin, — 
his father being a vine-dresser, and his mother the 
daughter of a poor village schoolmaster. At an 
early age they sent him to Chatillon on the Seine, 
where he lived with his uncle, a priest, who taught 
him to speak Latin, and awakened his religious sus- 
ceptibilities, which were naturally strong. This did 
not prevent him from yielding to the persuasions 
of one of his companions to run off to Beaune, a 
town of Burgundy, where the fugitives proposed to 

1 The above sketch of Garnier is drawn from various sources. ■ Obser- 
vaiions du P. Henri de St. Joseph, Carme, sur son Frere le P. Charles Gar- 
nier, MS. — Ahre'g€ de la Vie du R. Pere Charles Garnier, MS. This 
unpublished sketch bears the signature of the Jesuit Ragueneau, with 
tlie date 1652. For the opportunity of consulting it I am indebted to 
Rev. Felix Martin, S.J. — Lettres du P. Charles Garnier, MSS. These 
embrace his correspondence from the Huron country, and are exceed- 
ingly characteristic and striking. There is another letter in Carayon, 
Premiere Mission. — Garnier's family was wealthy, as well as noble. Its 
members seem to have been strongly attached to each other, and the 
young priest's father was greatly distressed at his departure for Canada. 

9* 



102 CHARACTER OF THE CANADIAN JESUITS. [1637. 

study music under the Fathers of the Oratory. To 
provide funds for the journey, he stole a sum of 
about the value of a dollar from his uncle, the priest. 
This act, which seems to have been a mere pecca- 
dillo of boyish levity, determined his future career. 
Finding himself in total destitution at Beaune, he 
wrote to his mother for money, and received in 
reply an order from his father to come home. 
Stung with the thought of being posted as a thief 
in his native village, he resolved not to do so, but 
to set out forthwith on a pilgrimage to Rome ; 
and accordingly, tattered and penniless, he took 
the road for the sacred city. Soon a conflict began 
within him between his misery and the pride which 
forbade him to beg. The pride was forced to 
succumb. He begged from door to door; slept 
under sheds by the wayside, or in haystacks ; and 
now and then found lodging and a meal at a 
convent. Thus, sometimes alone, sometimes with 
vagabonds whom he met on the road, he made his 
way through Savoy and Lombardy in a pitiable 
condition of destitution, tilth, and disease. At 
length he reached Ancona, when the thought oc- 
cured to him of visiting the Holy House of Loretto, 
and imploring the succor of the Virgin Mary. Nor 
were his hopes disappointed. He had reached 
that renowned shrine, knelt, paid his devotions, 
and offered his prayer, when, as he issued from the 
door of the chapel, he was accosted by a young 
man, whom he conjectures to have been an angel 
descended to his relief, and who was probably some 
penitent or devotee bent on works of charity or 



1637.] CHAUMONOT'S EARLY LIEE. 103 

self-mortification. With a voice of the greatest 
kindness, he proff"ered his aid to the wretched boy, 
whose appearance was ahke fitted to awaken pity 
and disgnst. The conquering of a natural repug- 
nance to filth, in the interest of charity and humil- 
ity, is a conspicuous virtue in most of the Roman 
Catholic saints ; and whatever merit may attach to 
it was acquired in an extraordinary degree by the 
young man in question. Apparently, he was a 
physician ; for he not only restored the miserable 
wanderer to a condition of comparative decency, 
but cured him of a grievous malady, the result of 
neglect. Chaumonot went on his way, thankful to 
his benefactor, and overflowing with an enthusiasm 
of gratitude to Our Lady of Loretto.^ 

As he journeyed towards Rome, an old burgher, 
at whose door he had begged, employed him as a 
servant. He soon became known to a Jesuit, to 
whom he had confessed himself in Latin; and as 
his acquirements were considerable for his years, 
he was eventually employed as teacher of a low 

1 " Si la moindre dame m'avoit fait rendre ce service par le dernier de 
ses valets, n'aurois-je pas dus lui en rendre toutes les reconnoissances pos- 
sibles 1 Et si apres une telle charite elle s'etoit offerte a me servir toujours 
de raesme, comment aurois-je du Thonorer, lui obeir, I'aimer toute ma 
vie ! Pardon, Reine des Anges et des hommes ! pardon de ce qu'apres 
avoir royu de vous tant de marques, par lesquelles vous m'avez convaincu 
que vous m'avez adopte pour votre fils, j'ai eu I'ingratitude pendant des- 
anne'es entieres de me comporter encore plutot en esclave de Satan qu'en 
enfant d'une Mere Vierge. que vous etes bonne et charitable ! puisque 
quelques obstacles que mes peches ayent pu mettre k vos graces, vous 
n'avez jamais cesse de m'attirer au bien; jusque la que vous m'avez fait 
admettre dans la Sainte Compagnie de Jesus, votre fils." — Chaumonot, 
Vie, 20. Tlie above is from the very curious autobiography written by 
Chaumonot, at the command of his Superior, in 1688. The original 
manuscript is at the Hotel Dieu of Quebec. Mr. Shea has printed it. 



104 CHARACTER OF THE CANADIAN JESUITS. [1637. 

class in one of the Jesuit schools. Nature had 
inclined him to a life of devotion. He would fain 
be a hermit, and, to that end, practised eating 
green ears of wheat; but, finding he could not 
swallow them, conceived that he had mistaken his 
vocation. Then a strong deske grew up within 
liim to become a Recollet, a Capuchin, or, above 
all, a Jesuit ; and at length the wish of his heart 
was answered. At the age of twenty-one, he was 
admitted to the Jesuit novitiate.^ Soon after its 
close, a small duodecimo volume was placed in his 
hands. It was a Relation of the Canadian mission, 
and contamed one of those narratives of Brebeuf 
which have been often cited in the preceding 
pages. Its ejffect was immediate. Burning to share 
those glorious toils, the young priest asked to be 
sent to Canada ; and his request was granted. 

Before embarking, he set out with the Jesuit 
Poncet, who was also destined for Canada, on a 
pilgrimage from Rome to the shrine of Our Lady 
of Loretto. They journeyed on foot, begging alms 

1 His age, when he left his uncle, the priest, is not mentioned. But 
he must have been a mere child ; for, at the end of his novitiate, lie had 
forgotten his native language, and was forced to learn it a second time. 

"Jamais y eut-il homme sur terre plus oblige que moi a la Sainte 
Eamille de Jesus, de Marie et de Joseph ! Marie en me guerissant de 
ma vilaine galle ou teigne, me delivra d'une infinite de peines et d'incom- 
modites corporelles, que cette hideuse maladie qui me rongeoit m'avoit 
cause. Joseph m'ayant obtenu la grace d'etre incorpore a un corps aussi 
saint qii'est celui des Jesuites, m'a preserve d'une infinite de miseres 
sph-ituelles, de tentations tres dangereuses et de peches tres enormes. 
Jesus n'ayant pas permis que j'entrasse dans aucun autre ordre qu'en 
celui qu'il honore tout a la fois de son beau nom, de sa douce presence et 
de sa protection speciale. Je'sus ! Marie ! Joseph ! qui meritoit 
moins que moi vos divines faveiu's, et envers qui avez vous ete plus pro- 
digue ? " — Chaumonot. Vie, 37. 



i 



1637-47.] NOEL CHABANEL. 105 

by the way. Chaumonot was soon seized with a 
pain in the knee, so violent that it seemed impos- 
sible to proceed. At San Severino, where they 
lodged with the Barnabites, he bethought him of 
asking the intercession of a certain poor woman 
of that place, who had died some time before with 
the reputation of sanctity. Accordingly he ad- 
dressed to her his prayer, promising to publish 
her fame on every possible occasion, if she would 
obtain his cure from God.^ The intercession was 
accepted; the offending limb became sound again, 
and the two pilgrims pursued their journey. They 
reached Loretto, and, kneeling before the Queen 
of Heaven, implored her favor and aid ; while 
Chaumonot, overflowing with devotion to this celes- 
tial mistress of his heart, conceived the purpose of 
building in Canada a chapel to her honor, after 
the exact model of the Holy House of Loretto. 
They soon afterwards embarked together, and ar- 
rived among the Hurons early in the autumn of 
1639. 

Noel Chabanel came later to the mission ; for he 
did not reach the Huron country until 1643. He 
detested the Indian life, — the smoke, the vermin, 
the filthy food, the impossibility of privacy. He 
could not study by the smoky lodge-fire, among the 
noisy crowd of men and squaws, with their dogs, 
and their restless, screeching children. He had a 
natural inaptitude to learning the language, and 

1 " Je me recommandai k elle en lui promettant de la faire connoitre 
dans toutes les occasions que j'en aiu'ois jamais, si elle m'obtenoit de Dieu 
ma guerison." — Chaumonot, Vie, 46. 



106 CHAEACTER OF THE CANADIAN JESUITS. [1637. 

labored at it for five years with scarcely a sign of 
progress. The Devil whispered a suggestion into 
his ear : Let him procure his release from these 
barren and revolting toils, and return to France, 
where congenial and useful employments awaited 
him. Chabanel refused to listen ; and when the 
temptation still beset him, he bound himself by a 
solemn vow to remain in Canada to the day of his 
death.^ 

Isaac Jogues was of a character not unlike 
Garnier. Natiu'e had given him no especial force 
of intellect or constitutional energy, yet the man 
was indomitable and irrepressible, as his history 
^^nI\. show. We have but few means of character- 
izing the remaining priests of the mission otherwise 
than as theh traits appear on the field of then* 
labors. Thehs was no faith of abstractions and 
generalities. For them, heaven was very near to 
earth, touching and mingling with it at many 
points. On high, God the Father sat enthroned; 
and, nearer to human sympathies. Divinity incar- 
nate in the Son, with the benign form of his im 
maculate mother, and her spouse, St. Joseph, the 
chosen patron of New France. Interceding saints 
and departed friends bore to the throne of grace the 
petitions of those yet lingering in mortal bondage, 
and formed an ascending chain from earth to heaven. 
These priests lived in an atmosphere of super- 
naturalism. Every day had its miracle. Divine 

1 Ahregg de la Vie du Pere Noel Chabanel, JIS. This anonymous 
paper bears the signature of Ragueneau, in attestation of its truth. See 
also Ragueneau, Relation, 1650, 17, 18. Chabanel's vow is here given 
verbati?n. 



1637-47.] MIRACLES. 107 

power declared itself in action immediate and 
direct, controlling, guiding, or reversing the laws 
of Nature. The missionaries did not reject the 
ordinary cures for disease or wounds ; but they 
relied far more on a prayer to the Virgin, a vow to 
St, Joseph, or the promise of a neuvaine, or nine 
days' devotion, to some other celestial personage ; 
while the touch of a fragment of a tooth or bone 
of some departed saint was of sovereign efficacy 
to cm-e sickness, solace pain, or relieve a suifering 
squaw in the throes of childbirth. Once, Chaumo- 
not, having a headache, remembered to have heard 
of a sick man Avho regained his health by com- 
mending his case to St. Ignatius, and at the same 
time putting a medal stamped with his image into 
his mouth. Accordingly he tried a similar experi- 
ment, putting into his mouth a medal bearing a 
representation of the Holy Family, which was the 
object of his especial devotion. The next morning 
found him cured.^ 

The relation between this world and the next 
was sometimes of a nature curiously intimate. 
Thus, when Chaumonot heard of Garnier's death, 
he immediately addressed his departed colleague, 
and promised him the benefit of all the good works 
which he, Chaumonot, might perform during the 
next week, provided the defunct missionary would 
make him heir to his knowledge of the Huron 
tongue.^ And he ascribed to the deceased Garnier's 

1 Chaumonot, Vie, 73. 

2 " Je n'eus pas plutot appris sa glorieuse mort, que je lui promis tout 
ce que je ferois de bien pendant huit jours, a condition qu'il me feroit son 
heritier dans la connoissance parfaite qu'il avoit du Huron." — Cliaumo 
not, Vie, 61. 



108 CHARACTER OF THE CA^^ADIAN JESUITS. [1637. 

influence the mastery of that language which he 
afterwards acquired. 

The efforts of the missionaries for the conversion 
of the savages were powerfully seconded from the 
other world, and the refractory subject who was 
deaf to human persuasions softened before the 
superhuman agencies which the priest invoked to 
his aid.^ 

It is scarcely necessary to add, that signs and 
voices from another world, visitations from Hell 
and \isions from Heaven, were incidents of no rare 
occurrence in the lives of these ardent apostles. 
To Brebeuf; whose deep nature, like a furnace 
white hot, glowed with the still intensity of his en- 
thusiasm, they were especially frequent. Demons 
in troops appeared before him, sometimes in the 
guise of men, sometimes as bears, wolves, or wild- 
cats. He called on God, and the apparitions van- 
ished. Death, like a skeleton, sometimes menaced 
him, and once, as he faced it with an unquailing 
eye, it fell powerless at his feet. A demon, in the 
form of a woman, assailed him with the temptation 
which beset St. Benedict among the rocks of 
Subiaco ; but Brebeuf signed the cross, and the 
infernal siren melted into air. He saw the vision 

1 As these may be supposed to be exploded ideas of the past, the 
writer may recall an incident of his youth, while spending a few days 
in the convent of the Passionists, near the Coliseum at Rome. These 
wordiy monks, after using a variety of arguments for his conversion, 
expressed the hope that a miraculous interposition would be vouchsafed to 
that end, and that the Virgin would manifest herself to him in a nocturnal 
vision. To this end they gave him a small brass medal, stamped with 
her image, to be worn at liis neck, while they were to repeat a certain 
number of Aves and Paters, in which he was urgently invited to join; 
as the result of which, it was hoped the Virgin would appear on the same 
night. No vision, however, occirred. 



1637-47.] SELF-DEVOTION. 109 

of avast and gorgeous palace; and a miraculous 
voice assured him that such was to be the reward 
of those who dwelt in savage hovels for the cause 
of God. Angels appeared to him ; and, more than 
once, St. Joseph and the Vu-gin were visibly pres- 
ent before his sight. Once, when he was among 
the Neutral Nation, in the winter of 1640, he be- 
held the ominous apparition of a great cross slowly 
approaching from the quarter where lay the coun- 
try of the Iroquois. He told the vision to his com- 
rades. "What was it like? How large was itl" 
they eagerly demanded. " Large enough," replied 
the priest, "to crucify us all."^ To explain such 
phenomena is the province of psychology, and not 
of history. Their occurrence is no matter of sur- 
prise, and it would be superfluous to doubt that 
they were recounted in good faith, and with a full 
belief in then' reality. 

In these enthusiasts we shall find striking ex- 
amples of one of the morbid forces of human 
nature ; yet in candor let us do honor to what 
was genuine in them, — that principle of self-ab- 
negation which is the life of true religion, and 
which is vital no less to the highest forms of 
heroism. 

^ Quelqiies Remarques sur la Vie du Pere Jean de Brebeuf, MS. On the 
margin of this paper, opposite several of the statements repeated above, 
are the words, signed by Ragueneau, "Ex ipsius autographo," indicating 
that the statements were made in writing by Brebeuf himself. 

Still other visions are recorded by Chaumonot as occurring to Bre- 
beuf, when they were together in the Neutral country. See also the long 
notice of Brebeuf, written by his colleague, Ragueneau, in the Relation of 
1649 ; and Tanner, Societas Jesu Militans, 533. 

10 



CHAPTER X. 

1637-1640. 
PERSECUTION. 

OssossANE. — The New Chapel. — A Teiumph op the Faith. — 
The Nether Powers. — Signs of a Tempest. — Slanders. — 
Rage against the Jesuits. — Their Boldness and Persist, 
ency. — Nocturnal Council. — Danger of the Priests. — 
Brebeuf's Letter. — Narrow Escapes. — Woes and Consola 

TIONS. 

The town of Ossossane, or Rochelle, stood, as we 
have seen, on the borders of Lake Huron, at the 
skirts of a gloomy wilderness of pine. Thither, in 
May, 1637, repahed Father Pijart, to found, in 
this, one of the largest of the Huron towns, the 
new mission of the Immaculate Conception.^ The 
Indians had promised Brebeuf to build a house for 
the black-robes, and Pijart found the work in prog 
ress. There were at this time about fifty dwellings 
in the town, each containing eight or ten families. 
The quadrangular fort already alluded to had now 
been completed by the Indians, under the instruc- 
tion of the priests.^ 

1 The doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Virgin, recently 
ganctioned by the Pope, has long been a favorite tenet of the Jesuits. 

2 Lettres de Gamier, MSS. It was of upright pickets, ten feet high, 
with flanking towers at two angles. 

[110] 



1637] THE NEW CHAPEL. Ill 

The new mission-house was about seventy feet 
in length. No sooner had the savage workmen 
secured the bark covering on its top and sides 
than the priests took possession, and began their 
preparations for a notable ceremony. At the 
farther end they made an altar, and hung such 
decorations as they had on the rough walls of 
bark throughout half the length of the structure. 
This formed theu' chapel. On the altar was a 
crucifix, with vessels and ornaments of shining 
metal; while above hung several pictures, — among 
them a painting of Christ, and another of the Vir- 
gin, both of life-size. There was also a repre- 
• sentation of the Last Judgment, wherein dragons 
and serpents might be seen feasting on the entrails 
of the wicked, while demons scourged them into 
the flames of Hell. The entrance was adorned with 
a quantity "^of tinsel, together with green boughs 
skilfully disposed.^ 

Never before were such splendors seen in the 
land of the Hurons. Crowds gathered from afar, 
and gazed in awe and admiration at the marvels 
of the sanctuary. A woman came from a distant 
town to behold it, and, tremulous between curiosity 
and fear, thrust her head into the mysterious recess, 
declaring that she would see it, though the look 
should cost her life.^ 

1 "Nostre Chapelle estoit extraorclinairement bien ornee, . . nous 
auions dresse vn portique entortille de feiiillage, mesle d'oripeau, en vn 
mot nous auions estalle tout ce que vostre E. nous a enuoie de beau," etc., 
etc. — Le Mercier, Relation des Hurons, 1637, 175, 176. — In his Relation 
of tlie next year lie recurs to tlie subject, and describes the pictures dis- 
played on this memorable occasion. — Relation des Hurons, 1688, 33. 

2 Ibid., 1637, 176. 



112 PERSECUTION. [1637 

One is forced to wonder at, if not to admire, the 
energy with which these priests -and their scarcely 
less zealous attendants ^ toiled to carry theu' pic- 
tures and ornaments through the most arduous of 
journeys, where the traveller was often famished 
from the sheer difficulty of transporting provisions. 

A great event had called forth all this prepara- 
tion. Of the many baptisms achieved by the 
Fathers in the course of their indefatigable minis 
try, the subjects had all been infants, or adults at 
the point of death ; but at length a Huron, in 
fuU health and manhood, respected and influential 
in his tribe, had been won over to the Faith, 
and was now to be baptized with solemn cere- 
monial, in the chapel thus gorgeously adorned. 
It was a strange scene. Indians were there in 
throngs, and the house was closely packed: war- 
riors, old and young, glistening m grease and sun- 
flower-oil, with uncouth locks, a trifle less coarse 
than a horse's mane, and faces perhaps smeared 
with pauit in honor of the occasion ; wenches in 
gay attire ; hags muffled in a filthy discarded deer- 
skin, their leathery visages corrugated with age 
and malice, and their hard, glittering eyes riveted 
on the spectacle before them. The priests, no 
longer in their daily garb of black, but radiant 
in their surplices, the genuflections, the tinkling 

•^ The Jesuits on these distant missions were usually attended by 
followers who had taken no vows, and could leave their service at will, 
but whose motives were religious, and not mei'cenary. Probably this was 
the character of tlieir attendants in the present case. They were known 
as donnes, or " given men." It appears from a letter of the Jesuit Du 
Peron, that twelve hired laborers were soon after sent up to the mission. 



1037.1 THE NETHER POWERS. 113 

of tlie bell, the swinging of the censer, the 
sweet odors so unlike the fumes of the smoky 
lodge-fires, the mysterious elevation of the Host, 
(for a mass followed the baptism,) and the agita- 
tion of the neophyte, whose Indian imperturbability 
fairly deserted him, — all these combined to pro- 
duce on the minds of the savage beholders an 
impression that seemed to promise a rich harvest 
for the Faith. To the Jesuits it was a day of 
triumph and of hope. The ice had been broken ; 
the wedge had entered; light had dawned at last 
on the long night of heathendom. But there was 
one feature of the situation which in their rejoicing 
they overlooked. 

The Devil had taken alarm. He had borne 
with reasonable composure the loss of individual 
souls snatched from him by former baptisms ; but 
here was a convert whose example and influence 
threatened to shake his Huron empire to its very 
foundation. In fury and fear, he rose to the con- 
flict, and put forth all his malice and all his hell- 
ish ingenuity. Such, at least, is the explanation 
given by the Jesuits of the scenes that followed.^ 
Whether accepting it or not, let us examine the 
circumstances which gave rise to it. 

1 Sever<al of the Jesuits allude to this supposed excitement among 
the tenants of the nether world. Thus, Le Mercier says, " Le Diable se 
sentoit presse de pros, il ne pouuoit supporter le Baptesme solennel de 
quelques Sauuages des plus signalez." — Relation des Hurons, 1638, 33. — 
Several other baptisms of less note followed that above described. Gar- 
nier, writing to his brother, repeatedly alludes to the alarm excited in 
Hell by the recent successes of the mission, and adds, — " Vous pouvez 
juger quelle consolation nous etoit-ce de voir le diable s'armer contra 
nous et se servir de ses esclaves pour nous attaquer et tacher de nous 
perdre en haine de J. C." 

10* 



114: PERSECUTIOX. [1037-40. 

The mysterious strangers, garbed in black, who 
of late years had made theii- abode among them, 
■from motives past finding out, marvellous in knowl- 
eda'e, careless of life, had awakened in the breasts 
of the Hurons mingled emotions of wonder, per- 
plexity, fear, respect, and awe. From the first, 
they had held them answerable for the changes 
of the weather, commending them when the crops 
were abundant, and upbraiding them in times of 
scarcity. They thought them mighty magicians, 
masters of life and death ; and they came to them 
for spells, sometimes to destroy their enemies, and 
sometimes to kill grasshoppers. And now it was 
whispered abroad that it was they who had be 
witched the nation, and caused the pest which 
threatened to exterminate it. 

It was Isaac Jogues who first heard this ominous 
rumor, at the town of Onnentisati, and it proceeded 
from the dwarfish sorcerer already mentioned, who 
boasted himself a devil incarnate. The slander 
spread fast and far. Their friends looked at them 
askance ; their enemies clamored for their lives. 
Some said that they concealed in then- houses a 
corpse, which infected the country, — a perverted 
notion, derived from some half-instructed neophyte, 
concerning the body of Christ in the Eucharist. 
Others ascribed the evil to a serpent, others to a 
spotted frog, others to a demon which the priests 
were supposed to carry in the barrel of a gun. 
Others again gave out that they had pricked an 
infant to death with awls in the forest, in order 
to kill the Huron children by magic. " Perhaps." 



1637-40.] TERROR OF THE HURONS. 115 

observes Father Le Mercier, ^' the Devil was en- 
raged because we had placed a great many of these 
little innocents in Heaven." ^ 

The picture of the Last Judgment became an 
object of the utmost terror. It was regarded as a 
charm. The dragons and serpents Avere supposed 
to be the demons of the pest, and the sinners whom 
they were so busily devouring to represent its vic- 
tims. On the top of a spruce-tree, near their house 
at Ihonatiria, the priests had fastened a small 
streamer, to show the direction of the wind. This, 
too, was taken for a charm, throwing off disease 
and death to all quarters. The clock, once an 
object of harmless wonder, now excited the wildest 
alarm ; and the Jesuits were forced to stop it, 
since, when it struck, it was supposed to sound the 
signal of death. At sunset, one would have seen 
knots of Indians, their faces dark with dejection 
and terror, listening to the measured sounds which 
issued from within the neighboring house of the 
mission, where, with bolted doors, the priests were 
singing litanies, mistaken for incantations by the 
awe-struck savages. 

Had the objects of these charges been Indians, 
their term of life would have been very short. 
The blow of a hatchet, stealthily struck in the 
dusky entrance of a lodge, would have promptly 
avenged the victims of their sorcery, and delivered 
the country from peril. But the priests inspired 

1 " Le diable enrageoit peutestre de ce que nous avions place dans le 
ciel quantite de ces petits innocens." — Le Mercier, Relation des Hurons, 
1638, 12 (Cramoisv). 



116 PERSECUTION. [1637-40 

a strange awe. Nocturnal councils were held; 
tlieir death, was decreed; and, as they walked then 
roimds, whispermg groups of children gazed after 
them as men doomed to die. But who should 
be the executioner? They were reviled and up- 
braided. The Indian boys threw sticks at them 
as they passed, and then ran behind the houses. 
When they entered one of these pestiferous dens, 
this impish crew clambered on the roof, to pelt 
them with snowballs through the smoke-holes. 
The old squaw who crouched by the fire scowled 
on them with mingled anger and fear, and cried 
out, " Begone ! there are no sick ones here." The 
uivalids wrapped theh heads in their blankets ; 
and when the priest accosted some dejected war- 
rior, the savage looked gloomily on the ground, and 
answered not a word. 

Yet nothing could divert the Jesuits from their 
ceaseless quest of dying subjects for baptism, and 
above all of dying children. They penetrated every 
house in turn. When, through the thin walls of 
bark, they heard the wail of a sick infant, no 
menace and no insult could repel them from the 
threshold. They pushed boldly in, asked to buy 
some trifle, spoke of late news of Iroquois forays, 
— of anything, in short, except the pestilence and 
the sick child ; conversed for a while till suspicion 
was partially lulled to sleep, and then, pretending 
to observe the sufferer for the fijst time, approached 
it, felt its pulse, and asked of its health. Now, 
while apparently fanning the heated brow, the 
dexterous visitor touched it with a corner of his 



IG87.] THE GREAT COUNCIL. 117 

handkerchief, which he had previously dipped in 
water, murmured the baptismal words with motion- 
less lips, and snatched another soul from the fangs 
of the " Infernal Wolf" ^ Thus, with the patience 
of saints, the courage of heroes, and an intent truly 
charitable, did the Fathers put forth a nimble-lin- 
gered adroitness that would have done credit to the 
profession of which the function is less to dispense 
the treasures of another world than to grasp those 
which pertain to this. 

Tlie Huron chiefs were summoned to a great 
council, to discuss the state of the nation. The 
crisis demanded all their wisdom ; for, while the 
continued ravages of disease threatened them with 
annihilation, the Iroquois scalping-parties infested 
the outskirts of their towns, and murdered them 
in their fields and forests. The assembly met in 
August, 1637 ; and the Jesuits, knowing their deep 
stake in its deliberations, failed not to be present, 
with a liberal gift of wampum, to show their 
sympathy in the public calamities. In private, 
they sought to gain the good-will of the deputies, 
one by one ; but though they were successful in 
some cases, the result on the whole was far from 
hopeful. 

In the intervals of the council, Brebeuf dis- 

1 Ce hup infernal is a title often bestowed in the Relations on tiie 
Devil. The above details are gathered from the narratives of Brebeuf, 
Le Mercier, and Lalemant, and letters, published and unpublished, of . 
several other Jesuits. 

In another case, an Indian girl was carrying on her back a sick child, 
two months old. Two Jesuits approached, and while one of them amused 
the girl with his rosary, "I'autre le baptise lestement; le pauure petit 
n'attendoit que ceste faueur du Ciel pour s'y enuoler." 



118 PERSECUTION. [1637. 

coursed to tlie crowd of chiefs on the wonders of 
the visible heavens, — the sun, the moon, the stars, 
and the planets. They were inclined to believe 
what he told them; for he had lately, to their 
great amazement, accurately predicted an eclipse. 
From the fires above he passed to the fires be- 
neath, till the listeners stood aghast at his hideous 
pictures of the fiames of perdition, — the only spe- 
cies of Christian instruction which produced any 
perceptible efi"ect on this unpromising auditory. 

The council opened on the evening of the fourth 
of August, with all the usual ceremonies ; and the 
night was spent in discussing questions of treaties 
and alliances, with a deliberation and good sense 
which the Jesuits could not help admhing.-^ A 
few days after, the assembly took up the more 
^ exciting question of the epidemic and its causes. 
Deputies from three of the four Huron nations 
were present, each deputation sittmg apart. The 
Jesuits were seated with the Nation of the Bear, 
in whose towns their missions were established. 
Like all important councils, the session was held 
at night. It was a strange scene. The light of 
the fires flickered aloft into the smoky vault and 
among the soot-begrimed rafters of the great coun- 
cil-house,^ and cast an uncertain gleam on the wild 
and dejected throng that filled the platforms and 
the floor. " I think I never saw anything more 
lugubrious," writes Le Mercier : " they looked at 

1 Le Mercier, Relation des Rurons, 1638, 38. 

2 It must have been the house of a chief. The Hurons, unlike some 
other tribes, liad no houses set apart for public occasions. 



1637 J THE JESUITS IMPEACHED, 119 

each other like so many corpses, or hke men who 
ah'eady feel the terror of death. When they spoke, 
it was only with sighs, each reckoning up the sick 
and dead of his own family. All this was to excite 
each other to vomit poison against us." 

A grisly old chief, named Ontitarac, withered 
with age and stone-blind, but renowned in past 
years for eloquence and counsel, opened the debate 
in a loud, though tremulous voice. First he saluted 
each of the three nations present, then each of the 
chiefs in turn, — congratulated them that all were 
there assembled to deliberate on a subject of the 
last importance to the public welfare, and exhorted 
them to give it a mature and calm consideration. 
Next rose the chief whose office it was to preside 
over the Feast of the Dead. He painted in dis- 
mal colors the woful condition of the country, and 
ended with charging it all upon the sorceries of 
the Jesuits. Another old chief followed him. 
"My brothers," he said, "you know well that I 
am a war-chief, and very rarely speak except in 
councils of war ; but I am compelled to speak 
now, since nearly all the other chiefs are dead, and 
I must utter what is in my heart before I follow 
them to the grave. Only two of my family are 
left alive, and perhaps even these will not long 
escape the fury of the pest. I have seen other 
diseases ravaging the country, but nothing that 
could compare with this. In two or three moons 
we saw their end : but now w^e have suffered for a 
year and more, and yet the evil does not abate. 
And what is worst of all, we have not yet discov- 



120 PERSECUTION. | ,637. 

ered its source." Then, with words of studied mod- 
eration, alternating with bursts of angry invective, 
he proceeded to accuse the Jesuits of causing, by 
their sorceries, the unparalleled calamities that af- 
flicted them ; and in support of his charge he ad- 
duced a prodigious mass of evidence. When he 
had spent his eloquence, Brebeuf rose to reply, 
and in a few words exposed the absurdities of his 
statements ; whereupon another accuser brought a 
new array of charges. A clamor soon arose from 
the whole assembly, and they called upon Brebeuf 
with one voice to give up a certain charmed cloth 
which was the cause of then miseries. In vain the 
missionary protested that he had no such cloth. 
The clamor increased. 

" If you will not believe me," said Brebeuf, " go 
to our house ; search everywhere ; and if you are 
not sure which is the charm, take all our clothing 
and all our cloth, and throw them into the lake." 

" Sorcerers always talk in that way," was the 
rej)ly. 

" Then what will you have me say ? " demanded 
Brebeuf. 

" Tell us the cause of the pest." 

Brebeuf replied to the best of his power, min- 
glmg his explanations with instructions in Christian 
doctrine and exhortations to embrace the Faith. 
He was continually interrupted ; and the old chief, 
Ontitarac, still called upon him to produce the 
charmed cloth. Thus the debate continued till af- 
ter midnight, when several of the assembly, seeing 
no prospect of a termination, fell asleep, and oth- 



1637.J DANGER OF THE PRIESTS. 121 

ers went away. One old chief, as Tie passed out 
said to Brebeuf, " If some young man should split 
your head, we should have nothing to say." The 
priest still continued to harangue the diminished 
conclave on the necessity of obeying God and the 
danger of offending Him, when the chief of Ossos- 
sane called out impatiently, " What sort of men 
are these ? They are always saying the same thing, 
and repeating the same words a hundred times. 
They are never done with telling us about their 
OH, and what he demands and what he forbids, 
and Paradise and Hell." ^ 

" Here was the end of this miserable council," 
writes Le Mercier; . . . "and if less evil came of 
it than was designed, we owe it, after God, to the 
Most Holy Virgin, to whom we had made a vow 
of nine masses in honor of her immaculate con- 
ception." 

The Fathers had escaped for the time ; but they 
were still in deadly peril. They had taken pains 
to secure friends in private, and there were those 
who were attached to their interests ; yet none 
dared openly take their part. The few converts 
they had lately made came to them in secret, and 
warned them that their death was determined upon. 
Their house was set on fire ; in public, every face 
was averted from them ; and a new council was 
called to pronounce the decree of death. They 
appeared before it with a front of such unflinching 
assurance, that their judges, Indian-like, postponed 

1 The above account of the council is drawn from Le Mercier, JRelu' 
tion des Hurons, 1638, Cliap. II. See also Bressani, Relation Abre'get, 163, 

11 



122 PEKSECUTION. [1637. 

the sentence. Yet it seemed impossible that they 
should much longer escape. Brebeuf, therefore, 
wrote a letter of farewell to his Superior, Le Jeune, 
at Quebec, and confided it to some converts whom 
he could trust, to be carried by them to its desti- 
nation. 

" We are perhaps," he says, " about to give our 
blood and our lives in the cause of our Master, 
Jesus Christ. It seems that His goodness will 
accept this sacrifice, as regards me, in expiation of 
my great and numberless sins, and that He will 
thus crown the past services and ardent desires of 
all our Fathers here. . . . Blessed be His name 
forever, that He has chosen us, among so many 
better than we, to aid Him to bear His cross in 
this land ! In all things, His holy will be done ! " 
He then acquaints Le Jeune that he has directed 
the sacred vessels, and all else belonging to the 
service of the altar, to be placed, in case of his 
death, in the hands of Pierre, the convert whose 
baptism has been described, and that especial care 
will be taken to preserve the dictionary and other 
writings on the Huron language. The letter closes 
with a request for masses and prayers.^ 

1 The following is the conclusion of the letter. (Le Mercier, Relation 
de.1 llurons, 1638, 43.) 

" En tout, sa sainte volonte soit faite ; s'il veut que des ceste heure 
nous mourions, 6 la bonne heure pour nous ! s'il veut nous reseruer a 
d'autres trauaux, qu'il soit beny ; si vous entendez que Dieu ait cou- 
ronne nos petits trauaux, ou plustost nos cTesirs, benissez-le : car c'est pour 
luy que nous desirous viure et mourir, et c'est luy qui nous en donne 
la grace. Au reste si quelques-vns suruiuent, i'ay donne ordre de tout ce 
qu'ils doiuent faire. I'ay este d'aduis que nos Peres et nos domestiques 
se retirent cliez ceux qu'ils croyront estre leurs mei'Jeurs amis ; i'ay 
donne charge qu'on porte chez Pierre nostre premier Dhrestien tout ce 



1637.1 THE FAREWELL FEAST. 123 

The imperilled Jesuits now took a singular, but 
certainly a very wise step. They gave one of those 
farewell feasts — festlns cl adieu — which Huron 
cust©m enjoined on those about to die, whether in 
the course of Nature or by public execution. Be- 
ing interpreted, it was a declaration that the priests 
knew their danger, and did not shrink from it. 
It might have the effect of changing overawed 
friends into open advocates, and even of awakening 
a certain sympathy in the breasts of an assembly 
on whom a bold bearing could rarely fail of influ- 
ence. The house was packed with feasters, and 
Brebeuf addressed them as usual on his unfailing 
themes of God, Paradise, and Hell. The throng- 
listened in gloomy silence ; and each, when he 
had emptied his bowl, rose and departed, leaving 
his entertainers in utter doubt as to his feelings 
and intentions. From this time forth, however, 
the clouds that overhung the Fathers became less 

qui est de la Sacristie, sur tout qu'on ait vn soin particulier de mettre en 
lieu d'asseurance le Dictionnaire et tout ce que nous auons de la langue. 
Pour moy, si Dieu me fait la grace d'allei' au Ciel, ie prieray Dieu pour 
eux, pour les pauures Hurons, et n'oublieray pas Vostre Reuerence. 

"Apres tout, uous supplions V. R. et tous nos Peres de ne nous 
oublier en leurs saincts Sacrifices et prieres, afin qu'en la vie et apres la 
mort, il nous fasse misericorde ; nous sommes tous en la vie et a I'Eter- 
nite', 

" De vostre Reuerence tres-hurables et tres-affectionnez seruiteurs en 
Nostre Seigneur, 

"Iean de Brebevf. 
Francois Joseph Le Mercieh- 
Pierre Ciiastellain. 
Charles Garnier. 
Pavl Ragveneav. 
*' En la Kesidenre de la Conception, k Ossossane, 
ce 28 Octobre. 

" I'ay laisse en la Residence de sainct losepli les Peres Pierre Piiart, 
et Isaac losves, dans les mesmes sentimens." 



12-i PERSECUTION. [1637-40. 

dark and threatening. Voices were heard in their 
defence, and looks were less constantly averted. 
They ascribed the change to the intercession of 
St. Joseph, to whom they had voAved a nine days' 
devotion. By whatever cause produced, the lapse 
of a week wrought a hopeful improvement in their 
prospects ; and when they went out of doors in the 
morning, it was no longer with the expectation of 
having a hatchet struck into then- brains as they 
crossed the threshold.^ 

The persecution of the Jesuits as sorcerers con- 
tinued, in an mtermittent form, for years ; and 
several of them escaped very narrowly. In a 
house at Ossossane, a young Indian rushed sud- 
denly upon Francois Du Peron, and lifted his toma- 
hawk to brain him, when a squaw caught his hand. 
Paul Ragueneau wore a crucifix, from which hung 
the image of a skull. An Indian, thinking it a 
charm, snatched it from him. The priest tried to 
recover it, when the savage, his eyes glittering with 
murder, brandished his hatchet to strike. Rague- 
neau stood motionless, waiting the blow. His 
assailant forbore, and withdrew, muttering. Pierre 
Chaumonot was emerging from a house at the 
Huron town called by the Jesuits St. Michel, 
where he had just baptized a dying girl, when her 
brother, standing hidden in the doorway, struck 
him on the head with a stone. Chaumonot, se 

1 " Tant y a que depuis le 6. de Nouembre que nous acheuasnies nos 
Messes votiues k son honneur, nous auons iouy d'vn repos incroyable, 
nous nous en eraerueillons nous-mesmes de iour en iour, quand nous con- 
siderons en quel estat estoient nos affaires il n'y a que liuict iouis." — Le 
Mercier, Relation des Hurons, 1638, 44. 






1637-40.] BOLDNESS OF THE JESUITS. 125 

verely wounded, staggered without falling, when 
the Indian sprang upon him with his tomahawk. 
The bystanders arrested the blow. Francois Le 
Mercier, in the midst of a crowd of Indians in a 
house at the town called St. Louis, was assailed by 
a noted chief, who rushed in, raving like a mad- 
man, and, in a torrent of words, charged upon him 
all the miseries of the nation. Then, snatching a 
brand from the fire, he shook it in the Jesuit's face, 
and told him that he should be burned alive. Le 
Mercier met him with looks as determined as his 
own, till, abashed at his undaunted front and bold 
denunciations, the Indian stood confounded.^ 

The belief that their persecutions were owing 
to the fury of the Devil, driven to desperation 
by the home-thrusts he had received at their 
hands, was an unfailing consolation to the priests. 
" Truly," writes Le Mercier, " it is an unspeakable 
happiness for us, in the midst of this barbarism, to 
hear the roaring of the demons, and to see Earth 
and Hell raging against a handful of men who 
will not even defend themselves." ^ In all the copi- 
ous records of this dark period, not a line gives oc 
casion to suspect that one of this loyal band flinched 
or hesitated. The iron Brebeuf, the gentle Garnier, 

1 The above incidents are from Le Mercier, Lalemant, Bressani, the 
autobiography of Chaumonot, the unpublished writings of Garnier, and 
the ancient manuscript volume of memoirs of the early Canadian mission- 
aries, at St. Mary's College, Montreal. 

- " C'est vcritablement un bonheur indicible pour nous, au milieu de 
cette barbarie, d'entendre les rugissemens des demons, & de voir tout 
I'Enfer & quasi tous les hommes animez & remplis de fureur contre une 
petite poignee de gens qui ne voudroient pas se defendre." — Relation des 
Hurons, 1640, 31 (Cramoisy). 

11* 



126 PEESECUTION. [1637-40 

tlie all-enduring Jogues, the enthusiastic Chau- 
monot, Lalemant, Le Mercier, Chatelain, Daniel, 
Pijart, E-agueneau, Du Peron, Poncet, Le Moyne, 

— one and all bore themselves with a tranquil bold- 
ness, which amazed the Indians and enforced their 
respect. 

Father Jerome Lalemant, in his journal of 1639, 
is disposed to draw an evil augury for the mission 
from the fact that as yet no priest had been put to 
death, inasmuch as it is a received maxim that the 
blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.^ 
He consoles himself with the hope that the daily 
life of the missionaries may be accepted as a living 
martyrdom ; since abuse and threats without end, 
the smoke, fleas, filth, and dogs of the Indian 
lodges, — which are, he says, little images of Hell, 

— cold, hunger, and ceaseless anxiety, and all these 
continued for years, are a portion to which many 
might prefer the stroke of a tomahawk. Peason- 
able as the Father s hope may be, its expression 
proved needless in the sequel ; for the Huron church 
was not destmed to sufl"er from a lack of martyrdom 
in any form. 

^ " Nous auons quelqiie fois doute, snauoir si on pouuoit esperer la con- 
uersion de ce pais sans qu'il y eust effusion de sang : le principe re9eu ce 
^enible dans I'Eglise de Dieu, que le sang des Martyrs est la semeuc^ des 
Chrestiens, me faisoit conclure pour lors, que cela n'estoit pas a esperer, 
voire mesme qu'il n'e'toit pas a souhaiter, considere la gloire qui reuient 
a Dieu de la Constance des Martyrs, du sang desquels tout le reste de la 
terre ayant tantost este abreuue, ce seroit vne espece de malediction, que 
ce quartier du monde ne participast point au bonheur d'auoir contribue a . 
I'esclat (le ceste gloire." — Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1639, 56, 57. 



CHAPTER XI. 

1638-1640. 
PRIEST AND PAGAN. 

Dp Peron's Journey. — Daily Life of the Jesuits. — Their Mis- 
sionary Excursions. — Converts at Ossossane. — Machinery 
OF Conversion. — Conditions of Baptism. — Backsliders. — 
The Converts and their Countrymen. — The Cannibals at 
St. Joseph. 

We have already touched on the domestic hfe 
of the Jesuits. That we may the better know them, 
we will follow one of their number on his journey 
towards the scene of his labors, and observe what 
awaited him on his arrival. 

Father Fran9ois Du Peron came up the Ottawa 
in a Huron canoe in September, 1638, and was 
well treated by the Indian owner of the vessel. 
Lalemant and Le Moyne, who had set out from 
Three Eivers before him, did not fare so well. The 
former was assailed by an Algonquin of Allumette 
Island, who tried to strangle him in revenge for 
tlie death of a child, which a Frenchman in the 
employ of the Jesuits had lately bled, but had 
failed to restore to health by the operation. Le 

[127] 



128 PRIEST AND PAGAN. [1638. 

Moyne was abandoned by his Huron conductors, 
and remained for a fortnight by the bank of the 
river, with a French attendant who supported him 
by hunting. Another Huron, belonging to the flo- 
tilla that carried Du Peron, then took him into his 
canoe ; but, becommg tired of him, was about to 
leave him on a rock in the river, when his brother 
priest bribed the savage with a blanket to carry 
him to his journey's end. 

It was midnight, on the twenty-ninth of Sep- 
tember, when Du Peron landed on the shore of 
Thunder Bay, after paddling without rest since one 
o'clock of the preceding morning. The night was 
rainy, and Ossossane was about fifteen miles dis- 
tant. His Indian companions were impatient to 
reach their towns ; the rain prevented the kindling 
of a fire ; while the priest, who for a long time had 
not heard mass, was eager to renew his communion 
as soon as possible. Hence, tired and hungry as 
he was, he shouldered his sack, and took the path 
for Ossossane without breaking his fast. He toiled 
on, half-spent, amid the ceaseless pattering, trick- 
Img, and whispering of innumerable drops among 
innumerable leaves, till, as day dawned, he reached 
a clearing, and descried through the mists a cluster 
of Pluron houses. Faint and bedrenched, he en- 
tered the principal one, and was greeted with the 
monosyllable " Shay ! " — " Welcome ! " A squaw 
spread a mat for him by the fire, roasted four ears 
of Indian corn before the coals, baked two squashes 
in the embers, ladled from her kettle a dish of 
sagamite, and offered them to her famished guest. 



1G38.] JESUIT DAILY LIFE. 129 

l^.Iissionaries seem to have been a novelty at this 
place ; for, while the Father breakfasted, a crowd, 
chiefly of children, gathered about him, and stared 
at him in silence. One examined the texture of 
his cassock ; another put on his hat ; a third took 
the shoes from his feet, and tried them on her own. 
Du Peron requited his entertainers with a few trin- 
kets, and begged, by signs, a guide to Ossossane. 
An Indian accordingly set out with him, and con- 
ducted him to the mission-house, which he reached 
at six o'clock in the evening. 

Here he found a warm welcome, and little other 
refreshment. In respect to the commodities of 
life, the Jesuits were but a step in advance of the 
Indians. Their house, though well ventilated by 
numberless crevices in its bark walls, always smelt 
of smoke, and, when the wind was in certain quar-* 
ters, was filled with it to suffocation. At their 
meals, the Fathers sat on logs around the fke, over 
which their kettle was slung in the Indian fashion. 
Each had his wooden platter, which, from the 
difficulty of transportation, was valued, in the Hu- 
ron country, at the price of a robe of beaver-skm, 
or a hundred francs.^ Their food consisted of sag- 
amite, or " mush," made of pounded Indian-corn, 
boiled with scraps of smoked fish. Chaumonot 
compares it to the paste used for papering the walls 
of houses. The repast was occasionally varied by 
a pumpkin or squash baked in the ashes, or, in the 

1 " Nos plats, quoyque de bois, nous coutent plus cher que les votres ; 
lis sont de la A'aleur d'une robe de castor, c'est a dire cent francs." — LeU 
tre du P. Du Peron a son Frere, 27 Avril, 1639. — The Father's appraise 
ment seems a little questionable. 



180 PRIEST AND PAGAN. [1638-40. 

season, by Indian corn roasted in the ear. They 
used no salt wliatever. They could bring their cum- 
brous pictures, ornaments, and vestments through 
the savage journey of the Ottawa ; but they could 
not bring the common necessaries of life. By day, 
they read and studied by the light that streamed 
in through the large smoke-holes in the roof, — at 
night, by the blaze of the fire. Their only candl(;s 
were a few of wax, for the altar. They cultivated 
a patch of ground, but raised nothing on it except 
wheat for making the sacramental bread. Their 
food was supplied by the Indians, to whom they 
gave, in return, cloth, knives, awls, needles, and 
various trinkets. Their supply of wine for the 
Eucharist was so scanty, that they limited them- 
selves to fom* or five drops for each mass.^ 

Their life was regulated with a conventual strict- 
ness. At four in the morning, a bell roused them 
from the sheets of bark on which they slept. 
Masses, private devotions, reading religious books, 
and breakfasting, filled the time until eight, when 
they opened then' door and admitted the Indians. 
As many of these proved intolerable nuisances, 
they took what Lalemant calls the honnete liberty 
of turning out the most intrusive and impractica- 

1 The above particulars are drawn from a long letter of rran9ois Du 
Peron to his brother, Joseph-Imbert Du Peron, dated at La. Conception 
(Ossossane), April 27, 1639, and from a letter, equally long, of Chaumonot 
to Fatlier Philippe Nappi, dated Du Pajjs des Hnrons, May 26, 1640. Both 
are in Carayon. These private letters of the Jesuits, of which many are 
extant, in some cases written on birch-bark, are invaluable as illustrations 
of the subject. 

The Jesuits soon learned to make wine from wild grapes. Those in 
Maine and Acadia, at a later period, made good candles from the waxy 
fruit of the shrub known locally as the " bayberrv." 



1 



1638-10.] MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS, 131 

ble, — an act performed with all tact and courtesy, 
and rarely taken in dudgeon. Having thus win- 
nowed their company, they catechized those that 
remained, as opportunity offered. In the intervals, 
the guests squatted by the fire and smoked their 
pipes. 

As among the Spartan virtues of the Hurons 
that of thieving was especially conspicuous, it was 
necessary that one or more of the Fathers should 
remain on guard at the house all day. The rest 
went forth on their missionary labors, baptizing 
and instructing, as we have seen. To each priest 
who could speak Huron ^ was assigned a certain 
number of houses, — in some instances, as many as 
forty; and as these often had five or six fires, with 
two families to each, his spiritual flock was as 
numerous as it was intractable. It was his care to 
see that none of the number died without baptism, 
and by every means in his power to commend the 
doctrines of his faith to the acceptance of those in 
health. 

At dinner, which was at two o'clock, grace was 
said in Huron, — for the benefit of the Indians 
present, — and a chapter of the Bible was read 
aloud during the meal. At four or five, according 
to the season, the Indians were dismissed, the door 
closed, and the evening spent in writing, reading, 
studying the language, devotion, and conversation 
on the affairs of the mission. 

The local missions here referred to embraced 

1 At the end of the year 1638, there were seven priests who spok6 
Huron, and three who had begun to learn it. 



132 PRIEST AND PAGAN. [1638-iO. 

Ossossane and the villages of the neighborhood; 
but the priests by no means confined themselves 
within these limits. They made distant excursions, 
two in company, until every house in every Huron 
town had heard the annunciation of the new doc- 
trine. On these journeys, they carried blankets 
or large mantles at then backs, for sleeping in at 
night, besides a supply of needles, awls, beads, and 
other small articles, to pay for their lodging and 
entertainment : for the Hiu'ons, hospitable without 
stint to each other, expected full compensation 
from the Jesuits. 

At Ossossane, the house of the Jesuits no longer 
served the double purpose of dwelling and chapel. 
In 1638, they had in then* pay twelve artisans and 
laborers, sent up from Quebec,^ who had built, 
before the close of the year, a chapel of wood.^ 
Hither they removed thek pictures and ornaments ; 
and here, in winter, several fires were kept burning, 
for the comfort of the half-naked converts.^ Of 
these they now had at Ossossane about sixty, — 
a large, though evidently not a very solid nucleus 
for the Huron church, — and tbey labored hard 
and anxiously to confirm and multiply them. Of 
a Sunday morning in wmter, one could have seen 
them coming to mass, often from a considerable 
distance, " as naked," says Lalemant, " as your 
hand, except a skin over their backs like a mantle, 
and, in the coldest weather, a few skins around 

1 Du Peron in Carayon, 173. 

2 "La chapelle est faite d'uue charpente bien jolie, semblable presque. 
en fa9on et grandeur, a notre chapelle de St. Jnlien." — Ibid., 183. 

3 Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1639, 62. 



I 



r,.lS-W.] CONDITIONS OF BAPTISM. 133 

their feet and legs." They knelt, mingled with 
the French mechanics, before the altar, — very 
awkwardly at first, for the posture was new to 
them, — and all received the sacrsiment together : 
a spectacle which, as the missionary chronicler 
declares, repaid a hundred times all the labor of 
their conversion.^ 

Some of the principal methods of conversion are 
curiously illustrated in a letter written by Gar 
nier to a friend in France. " Send me," he says, 
"a picture of Christ without a beard." Several 
Virgins are also requested, together with a variety 
of souls in perdition — dmes damnees — most of 
them to be mounted in a portable form. Particular 
directions are given with respect to the demons, 
dragons, flames, and other essentials of these works 
of art. Of souls in bliss — dmes hienheureuses — 
he thinks that one will be enough. All the pic- 
tures must be in full face, not in profile ; and they 
must look du'ectly at the beholder, with open eyes. 
The colors should be bright ; and there must be no 
flowers or animals, as these distract the attention 
of the Indians.^ 

The first point with the priests was of course to 
bring the objects of their zeal to an acceptance of 
the fundamental doctrines of the Roman Church ; 
but, as the mind of the savage was by no means 

* Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1639, 62. 

2 Gamier, Lettre 17"»«, MS. These directions show an excellent 
knowledge of Indiai: peculiarities. The Indian dislike of a beard is well 
known. Catlin, the painter, once caused a fatal quarrel among a party of 
Sioux, by representing one of them in profile, whereupon he was jibed 
by a rival as being but half a man. 

12 



134 PRIEST AND PAGAN. -11638-40. 

that beautiful blank which some have represented 
it, there Avas much to be erased as well as to be 
written. They must renounce a host of supersti- 
tions, to which they were attached with a strange 
tenacity, or which may rather be said to have been 
ingrained in theh very natui'es. Certain points of 
Christian morahty were also strongly urged by the 
missionaries, who insisted that the convert should 
take but one wife, and not cast her off without 
grave cause, and that he should renounce the gross 
license almost universal among the Hurons. Mur- 
der, cannibalism, and several other offences, were 
also forbidden. Yet, while laboring at the work of 
conversion with, an energy never surpassed, and 
battling against the powers of darkness with the 
mettle of paladins, the Jesuits never had the folly 
to assume towards the Indians a dictatorial ot over- 
bearmg tone. Gentleness, kindness, and patience 
were the ride of theh intercourse.^ They studied 
the nature of the savage, and conformed themselves 
to it with an admirable tact. Far from treating 
the Indian as an alien and barbarian, they would 
fain have adopted him as a countryman ; and they 

1 The following passage from the " Divers Sentimens," before cited, 
will illustrate this point. " Pour conuertir les Sauuages, il n'y faut pas tant 
de science que de bonte et vertu bien solide. Les quatre Eleniens d'vn 
liomme Apostolique en la Nouuelle France sont I'AfFabilite, rilumilite, 
la Patience et vne Charite genereuse. Le zele trop ardent brusle plus 
qu'il n'eschauffe, et gaste tout ; il faut vne grande magnanimite et conde- 
scendance, pour attirer peu a peu ces Sauuages. lis n'entendent pas bien 
nostre Theologie, mais ils entendent parfaictement bien nostre humilite' 
et nostre affabilite, et se laissent gaigner." 

So too Brebeuf, in a letter to Vitelleschi, General of the Jesuits 
(see Carayon, 163): " Ce qu'il faut demander, avant tout, des ouvriers 
destines a cette mission, c'est une douceur inalterable et une patience a 
toute e'preuve." 



I 



1638-40.] BACKSLIDERS. 135 

proposed to the Hurons that a number of young 
Frenchmen should settle among them, and marry 
then' daughters in solemn form. The listeners 
were gratified at an overture so flattering. " But 
what is the use," they demanded, "of so much cer 
emony ? If the Frenchmen want our women, they 
are welcome to come and take them whenever they 
please, as they always used to do." ^ 

The Fathers are well agreed that theh difficulties 
did not arise from any natural defect of under- 
standing on the part of the Indians, who, accord- 
ing to Chaumonot, were more mtelligent than the 
French peasantry, and who, in some instances, 
showed in their way a marked capacity. It was 
the inert mass of pride, sensuality, indolence, and 
superstition that opposed the march of the Faith, 
and in which the Devil lay intrenched as behind 
impregnable breastworks.^ 

It soon became evident that it was easier to 
make a convert than to keep him. Many of the 
Indians clung to the idea that baptism was a safe- 
guard against pestilence and misfortune; and when 

1 Le Mei cier, Relation des Hurons, .1637, 160. 

2 In this connection, the following specimen of Indian reasoning is 
worth noting. At the height of the pestilence, a Huron said to one of the 
priests, "I see plainly that your God is angry with us beoRuse we will 
not believe and obey him. Ihonatiria, where you first taught his word, 
is entirely ruined. Then you came here to Ossossane, and we would not 
listen ; so Ossossane is ruined too. This year you have been all through 
our country, and found scarcely any who would do what God commands ; 
therefore the pestilence is everywhere." After premises so hopeful, 'he 
Fathers looked for a satisfactory conclusion ; but the Indian proceeded, — 
" My opinion is, that we ought to shut you out from all the houses, and 
stop our ears when you speak of God, so that we cannot hear. Then we 
shall not be so guilty of rejecting the truth, and he will not punish us so 
cruelly." — Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1640, 80. 



136 PRIEST AND PAGAN. [1638-40. 

the fallacy of this notion was made apparent, their 
zeal cooled. Their only amusements consisted of 
feasts, dances, and games, many of which were, to 
a greater or less degree, of a superstitious charac- 
ter ; and as the Fathers could rarely prove to their 
own satisfaction the absence of the diabolic element 
in any one of them, they proscribed the whole in- 
discriminately, to the extreme disgust of the neo- 
phyte. His countrymen, too, beset him with dismal 
prognostics : as, " You will kill no more game," 
— " All your hair will come out before spring," 
and so forth. Various doubts also assailed him 
with regard to the substantial advantages of his 
new profession ; and several converts were filled 
with anxiety in view of the probable want of 
tobacco in Heaven, saying that they could not do 
without it.^ Nor was it pleasant to these incipient 
Christians, as they sat in class listening to the 
instructions of their teacher, to find themselves and 
him suddenly made the targets of a shower of 
sticks, snowballs, corn-cobs, and other rubbish, 
flung at them by a screeching rabble of vagabond 
boys.^ 

Yet, while most of the neophytes demanded an 
anxious and diligent cultivation, there were a few 
of excellent promise ; and of one or two especially, 
the Fathers, in the fulness of their satisfaction, 
assure us again and again " that they were savage 
only in name."^ 

1 Laleraant, Relation des Hurons, 1639, 80. 

2 Ibid., 78. 

' From June, 1639, to June, 1640, about a thousand persons were 
baptized. Of these, two hundred and sixty were infants, and many more 



1638-40.] THE CANNIBALS AT ST. JOSEPH. 137 

As the town of Ihonatiria, where the Jesuits had 
made their fii'st abode, was ruined by the pestilence, 
the mission estabhshed there, and known by the 
name of St. Joseph, was removed, in the summer 
of 1638, to Teanaustaye, a large town at the foot 
of a range of hills near the southern borders of 
the Huron territory. The Hurons, this year, had 
had unwonted successes in their war Avith the Iro 
quois, and had taken, at various times, nearly a 
hundred prisoners. Many of these were brought 
to the seat of the new mission of St. Joseph, and 
put to death with frightful tortures, though not 
before several had been converted and baptized. 
The torture was followed, in spite of the remon- 
strances of the priests, by those cannibal feasts 
customary with the Hurons on such occasions. 
Once, when the Fathers had been strenuous in 
their denunciations, a hand of the victim, duly 
prepared, was flung in at their door, as an invi- 
tation to join in the festivity. As the owner of 
the severed member had been baptized, they dug 
a hole in theii chapel, and buried it with solemn 
rites of sepulture.^ 

were children. Very many died soon after baptism. Of the whole num- 
ber, less than twenty were baptized in health, — a number much below 
that of the preceding year. 

The following is a curious case of precocious piety. It is that of a 
child at St. Joseph. " EUe n'a que deux ans, et fait joliment le signe de 
la croix, et prend elle-meme de I'eau be'nite ; et une fois se mit a crier, 
Bortant de la Chapelle, a cause que sa mere qui la portoit ne lui avoit 
donne le loisir d'en prendre. II I'a fallu reporter en prendre." — Lettres 
de Gamier, MSS. 

I Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1639, 70. 

12* 



CHAPTER XII. 

1639, 1640. 
THE TOBACCO NATION. THE NEUTRALS. 

A Change of Plan. — Sainte JIarie. — Mission of the Tobacco 
Nation. — Winter Journeying. — Reception of the Mission- 
aries. — SuPERSTinous Terrors. — Peril of Garnier and 
JoGDES. — Mission of the Neutrals. — Huron Intrigues. — 
Miracles. — Fury of the Indians. — Interventiok of Saint 
Michael. — Return to Sainte Marie. — Intrepidity of the 
Priests. — Their Mental Exaltation. 

It had been the first purpose of the Jesuits to 
form permanent missions in each of the prmcipal 
Huron towns ; but, before the close of the year 
1639, the difficulties and risks of this scheme had 
become fully apparent. They resolved, therefore, 
to establish one central station, to be a base of 
operations, and, as it were, a focus, whence the 
light of the Faith should radiate through all the 
wilderness around. It was to serve at once as 
residence, fort, magazme, hospital, and convent. 
Hence the priests would set forth on missionary 
expeditions far and near ; and hither they might 
retire, as to an asylum, in times of sickness or 
extreme peril. Here the neophytes could be gath- 

ri381 



( 



1639.] SAINTE MARIE. 139 

ered together, safe from perverting influeiices ; and 
here in time a Christian settlement, Hurons min- 
gled with Frenchmen, might spring up and thrive 
under the shadow of the cross. 

The site of the new station was admirably chosen. 
The little river Wye flows from the southward into 
the Matchedash Bay of Lake Huron, and, at about 
a mile from its mouth, passes through a small 
lake. The Jesuits made choice of the right bank 
of the Wye, where it issues from this lake, — 
gained permission to build from the Indians, though 
not without difficulty, — and began their labors Avith 
an abundant energy, and a very deficient supply 
of workmen and tools. The new establishment 
was called Sainte Marie. The house 'at Teanaus- 
taye, and the house and chapel at Ossossane, were 
abandoned, and all was concentrated at this spot. 
On one hand, it had a short water communication 
with Lake Huron ; and on the other, its central 
position gave the readiest access to every part of 
the Huron territory. 

During the summer before, the priests had made 
a survey of thek field of action, visited all the 
Huron towns, and christened each of them with 
the name of a saint. This heavy draft on the cal- 
endar was followed by another, for the designation 
of the nine towns of the neighbormg and kindred 
people of the Tobacco Nation.^ The Huron towns 
were portioned into four districts, while those of 
the Tobacco Nation formed a fifth, and each dis- 
trict was assigned to the charge of two or more 

1 See Introduction. 



140 THE TOBACCO NATION. [1639. 

priests. In November and December, they began 
their missionary excursions, — for the Indians were 
aow gathered in their settlements, — and journeyed 
on foot through the denuded forests, in mud and- 
snow, bearing on their backs the vessels and uten- 
sils necessary for the service of the altar. 

The new and perilous mission of the Tobacco 
Nation fell to Gamier and Jogues. They were 
well chosen ; and yet neither of them was robust 
by nature, in body or mind, though Jogues was 
noted for personal activity. The Tobacco Nation 
lay at the distance of a two days' journey from the 
Huron towns, among the mountains at the head of 
Nottawassaga Bay. The two missionaries tried to 
find a guide at Ossossane ; but none would go with 
them, and they set forth on their wild and un- 
known pilgrimage alone. 

The forests were full of snow ; and the soft, moist 
flakes were still falling thickly, obscuring the air, 
beplastering the gray trunks, weighing to the earth 
the boughs of spruce and pine, and hiding every 
footprint of the narrow path. The Fathers missed 
their way, and toiled on till night, shaking down at 
every step from the burdened branches a shower 
of fleecy white on their black cassocks. Night 
overtook them in a spruce swamp. Here they 
made a fire with great difficulty, cut the evergreen 
boughs, piled them for a bed, and lay down. The 
storm presently ceased; and, "praised be God," 
writes one of the travellers, " we passed a very 
good night." ^ 

1 Jogues and Gamier in Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1640, 95i 



I 



1639.] RECEPTION. 141 

In the morning they breakfasted on a morsel of 
corn bread, and, resummg theh journey, fell in 
with a small party of Indians, whom they followed 
all day without food. At eight in the evening they 
reached the first Tobacco town, a miserable cluster 
of bark cabins, hidden among forests and half 
buried in snow-drifts, where the savage children, 
seeing the two black apparitions, screamed that 
Famine and the Pest were coming. Their evil 
fame had gone before them. They were unwel- 
come guests ; nevertheless, shivering and famished 
as they were, in the cold and darkness, they boldly 
pushed their way into one of these dens of bar- 
barism. It was precisely like a Huron house. 
Five or six fires blazed on the earthen floor, and 
around them were huddled twice that number of 
families, sitting, crouching, standing, or flat on 
the ground ; old and young, women and men, 
children and dogs, mingled pell-mell. The scene 
would have been a strange one by daylight : it was 
doubly strange by the flicker and glare of the 
lodge-flres. Scowlmg brows, sidelong looks of dis- 
trust and fear, the screams of scared children, the 
scolding of squaws, the growling of w^olfish dogs, — 
this w^as the greeting of the strangers. The chief 
man of the household treated them at first with the 
decencies of Indian hospitality ; but when he saw 
them kneeling in the litter and ashes at theu' devo- 
tions, his suppressed fears found vent, and he began 
a loud harangue, addressed half to them and half 
to the Indians. " Now, what are these ohies doing? 
They are making charms to kill us, and destroy all 



142 THE NEUTRALS. [1640. 

that the pest has spared in this house. I heard 
that they were sorcerers ; and now, when it is too 
late, I beheve it." ^ It is wonderful that the priests 
escaped the tomahawk. Nowhere is the power of 
courage, faith, and an unflinching purpose more 
strikingly displayed than in the record of these 
missions. 

In other Tobacco towns their reception was much 
the same ; but at the largest, called by them St. 
Peter and St. Paul, they fared worse. They 
reached it on a winter afternoon. Every door 
of its capacious bark houses was closed against 
them ; and^ they heard the squaws within callmg 
on the young men to go out and split their heads, 
while children screamed abuse at the black-robed 
sorcerers. As night approached, they left the 
town, when a band of young men followed them, 
hatchet in hand, to put them to death. Darkness, 
the forest, and the mountain favored them ; and, 
eluding their pursuers, they escaped. Thus began 
the mission of the Tobacco Nation. 

In the following November, a yet more distant 
and perilous mission was begun. Brebeuf and 
Chaumonot set out for the Neutral Nation. This 
fierce people, as we have already seen, occupied 
that part of Canada which lies immediately north 
of Lake Erie, while a wing of their territory 
extended across the Niagara into Western New 
York.^ In their athletic proportions, the ferocity 

1 Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1640, 96. 

2 Introduction. — The river Niagara was at this time, 1640, well known 
to the Jesuits, though none of them had visited it. Lalemant speaks of 
it as the "famous river of this nation" (the Neutrals). The following 



1640.] PEEILS. 143 

of their manners, and the extravagance of their 
superstitions, no American tribe has ever exceeded 
them. They carried to a preposterous excess the 
Indian notion, that insanity is endowed with a 
mysterious and superhuman power. Their country 
was full of pretended maniacs, who, to propitiate 
their guardian spirits, or oJcies, and acquire the 
mystic virtue which pertained to madness, raved 
stark naked through the villages, scattering the 
brands of the lodge-ikes, and upsetting everything 
in their way. 

The two priests left Sainte Marie on the second 
of November, found a Huron guide at St. Joseph, 
and, after a dreary march of five days through the 
forest, reached the first Neutral town. Advancing 
thence, they visited in turn eighteen others ; and 
their progress was a storm of maledictions. Bre- 
beuf especially was accounted the most pestilent 
of sorcerers. The Hurons, restrained by a super- 
stitious awe, and unwilling to kill the priests, lest 
they should embroil themselves with the French at 

translation, from Ins Relation of 1641, shows that both Lake Ontario and 
Lake Erie had already taken their present names. 

"This river" (the Niagara) "is the same bj which our gi-eat lake 
of the Hurons, or Fresh Sea, discharges itself, in the first place, into Lake 
Erie (/e lac d'Erie), or the Lake of the Cat Nation. Then it enters the 
territories of the Neutral Nation, and takes the name of Onguiaahra 
(Niagara), until it discharges itself into Ontario, or the Lake of St. Louis ; 
whence at last issues the river which passes before Quebec, and is called 
the St. Lawrence." He makes no allusion to tlie cataract, which is first 
mentioned as follows by Ragueneau, in the Relation of 1648. 

"Nearly south of this same Neutral Nation there is a great lake, 
about two hundred leagues in circuit, named Erie (Erie), which is formed 
by the discharge of the Fresh Sea, and which precipitates itself by a cat- 
aract of frightful height into a third lake, named Ontario, which we call 
Lake St. Louis." — Relation des Hurons, 1648, 46. 



144 THE NEUTRALS. [1640. 

Quebec, conceived tliat their object might be safely 
gained by stiiTing up the Neutrals to become their 
executioners. To that end, they sent two emissaries 
to the Neutral towns, who, calling the chiefs and 
young warriors to a council, denounced the Jesuits 
as destroyers of the human race, and made their 
auditors a gift of nine French hatchets on condi- 
tion that they would put them to death. It was 
now that Brebeuf, fully conscious of the danger, 
half starved and half frozen, driven with revilings 
from every door, struck and spit upon by pretended 
maniacs, beheld m a vision that great cross, which, 
as we have seen, moved onward through the air, 
above the wintry forests that stretched towards the 
land of the Iroquois.^ 

Chaumonot records yet another miracle. " One 
evening, when all the chief men of the town were 
deliberating in council whether to put us to death, 
Father Brebeuf, while making his examination of 
conscience, as we were together at prayers, saw 
the vision of a spectre, full of fury, menacing us 
both with three javelins which he held in his 
hands. Then he hurled one of them at us ; but 
a more powerful hand caught it as it flew: and 
this took place a second and a thhd time, as he 
hurled his two remaining javelins. . . . Late at 
night our host came back from the council, w^here 
the two Huron emissaries had made their gift of 
hatchets to have us killed. He wakened us to 
say that three times we had been at the point of 
death ; for the young men had offered three times 

1 See ante, p. 109. 



15iD.J THE AECHANGEL MICKAEL. 145 

to strike the blow, and three times the old men 
had dissuaded them. This explained the meaning 
of Father Brebeuf 's vision." ^ 

They had escaped for the time ; but the Indians 
agreed among themselves, that thenceforth no one 
should give them shelter. At night, pierced with 
cold and faint with hunger, they found every door 
closed agamst them. They stood and watched, 
saw an Indian issue from a house, and, by a quick 
movement, pushed through the half-open door into 
this abode of smoke and filth. The inmates, aghast 
at their boldness, stared in silence. Then a mes- 
senger ran out to carry the tidings, and an angry 
crowd collected. 

" Go out, and leave our country," said an old 
chief, " or we will put you into the kettle, and 
make a feast of you." 

" I have had enough of the dark-colored flesh 
of our enemies," said a young brave ; " I Avish to 
know the taste of white meat, and I will eat 
yours." 

A warrior rushed in like a madman, drew his 
bow, and aimed the arrow at Chaumonot. " 1 
looked at him fixedly," writes the Jesuit, " and 
commended myself in full confidence to St. Mi- 
chael. Without doubt, this great archangel saved 
us ; for almost immediately the fury of the warrior 
was appeased, and the rest of our enemies soon 
began to listen to the explanation we gave them 
of our visit to their country."^ 

The mission was barren of any other fruit than 

1 Chaumonot, Vie, 55. 2 Jbid., 57. 

13 



146 THE NEUTRALS. [1640. 

hardship and danger, and after a stay of four 
months the two priests resolved to return. On 
the way, they met a genuine act of kindness. A 
heavy snow-storm arresting their progress, a Neu- 
tral woman took them into her lodge, entertained 
them for tAvo weeks with her best fare, persuaded 
her father and relatives to befriend them, and aided 
them to make a vocabulary of the dialect. Bid- 
ding their generous hostess farewell, they jour- 
neyed northward, through the melting snows of 
spring, and reached Sainte Marie in safety.^ 

The Jesuits had borne all that the human frame 
seems capable of bearing. They had escaped as 
by miracle from torture and death. Did their zeal 
flag or their courage fail? A fervor intense 
and unquenchable urged them on to more distant 
and more deadly ventures. The beings, so near 
to mortal sympathies, so human, yet so divine, 
in whom their faith impersonated and dramatized 
the great principles of Christian truth, — virgins, 
saints, and angels, — hoA^ered over them, and held 
before then* raptured sight crowns of glory and 
garlands of immortal bliss. They burned to do, to 
suffer, and to die ; and now, from out a living mar- 
t)Tdom, they turned their heroic gaze towards an , 

1 Lalemant, in his Relation of 1641, gives the narrative of this mission] 
at lengtli. His account coincitles perfectly witli the briefer notice of ] 
Cliaumonot in his Autobiography. Chaunionot describes the difficulties 
of the journey very graphically in a letter to his friend, Father Nappi,] 
dated Aug. 3, 1640, preserved in Carayon. See also the next letter,] 
Breheuf au T. R. P. Mutio Vhelleschi, 20 Aout, 1641. 

The Re'collet La Eoche Dallion had visited the Neutrals fourteen] 
years before, (see Introduction, note,) and, like his two successors, hadj 
been seriously endangered by Huron intrigues. 



1640.] MENTAL EXALTATION. 147 

horizon dark with perils yet more appalling, 
and saw in hope the day when they should bear 
the cross into the blood-stained dens of the Iro- 
quois.^ 

But, in this exaltation and tension of the powers, 
was there no moment when the recoil of Nature 
claimed a temporary sway 1 When, an exile from 
his kind, alone, beneath the desolate rock and 
the gloomy pine-trees, the priest gazed forth on the 
pitiless wilderness and the hovels of its dark and 
ruthless tenants, his thoughts, it may be, flew long- 
ingly beyond those wastes of forest and sea that 
lay between him and the home of his boyhood . 
or rather, led by a deeper attraction, they revisited 
the ancient centre of his faith, and he seemed to 
stand once more in that gorgeous temple, where, 
shrined in lazuli and gold, rest the hallowed bones 
of Loyola. Column and arch and dome rise upon 
his vision, radiant in painted light, and trembling 
with celestial music. Again he kneels before the 
altar, from whose tablature beams upon him that 
loveliest of shapes in which the imagination of 
man has embodied the spirit of Christianity. The 
illusion overpowers him. A thrill shakes his frame, 
and he bows in reverential rapture. No longer a 
memory, no longer a dream, but a visioned pres- 
ence, distinct and luminous in the forest shades, 
the V'irgin stands before him. Prostrate on the 
rocky earth, he adores the benign angel of his 

1 This zeal was in no degree due to success ; for in 1641, after seven 
years of toil, the mission counted only about fifty living converts, — a 
falling off from former years. 



148 THE NEUTRALS. [ICIO 

ecstatic faith, then turns with rekindled fervors to 
his stern apostleship. 

Now, by the shores of Thunder Bay, the Huron 
traders freight thek' bhch vessels for their yearly 
voyage ; and, embarked with them, let us, too, 
revisit the rock of Quebec. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

1636-1646. 
QUEBEC AJSTD ITS TENANTS. 

The New Governor. — Edifying Examples. — Le Jeune's Corre- 
spondents. — Eank and Devotion. — Nuns. — Priestlt Au- 
thority. — Condition of Quebec. — The Hundred Associates, 

— Church Discipline. — Plays. — Fireworks. — Processions. 

— Catechizing. — Terrorism. — Pictures. — The Converts. — 
The Society of Jesus. — The Eoresters. 

I HAVE traced, in another volume, the life and 
death of the noble founder of New France, Samuel 
de Champlain. It was on Christmas Day, 1635, 
that his heroic spirit bade farewell to the frame it 
had animated, and to the rugged cliff where he had 
toiled so long to lay the corner-stone of a Christian 
empire. 

Quebec was without a governor. Who should 
succeed Champlain? and would his successor be 
found equally zealous for the Faith, and friendly to 
the mission? These doubts, as he himself tells us, 
agitated the mind of the Father Superior, Le 
Jeune ; but they were happily set at rest, when, on 
a morning in June, he saw a ship anchoring in the 
basin below, and, hastening with his brethren to 
the landing-place, was there met by Charles Huault 

13* [1491 



150 QUEBEC AND ITS TENANTS. [1636. 

de Montmagny, a Kniglit of Malta, followed by 
a train of officers and gentlemen. As they all 
climbed the rock together, Montmagny saw a cru- 
cifix planted by the path. He instantly fell on 
his knees before it ; and nobles, soldiers, sailors, 
and priests imitated his example. The Jesuits 
sang Te Deum at the church, and the cannon 
roared from the adjacent fort. Here the new 
governor was scarcely installed, when a Jesuit 
came in to ask if he would be godfather to an 
Indian about to be baptized. " Most gladly," re- 
phed the pious Montmagny. He repaired on the 
instant to the convert's hut, with a company of 
gayly apparelled gentlemen; and while the inmates 
stared in amazement at the scarlet and embroidery, 
he bestowed on the dying savage the name of Jo- 
seph, in honor of the spouse of the Virgin and the 
patron of New France.^ Three days after, he was 
told that a dead proselyte was to be bimed ; on 
which, leaving the lines of the new fortification he 
was tracing, he took in hand a torch, De Lisle, 
his lieutenant, took another, Repentigny and St. 
Jean, gentlemen of his suite, with a band of sol- 
diers followed, two priests bore the corpse, and 
thus all moved together in procession to the place 
of burial. The Jesuits were comforted. Champlain 
himself had not displayed a zeal so edifying.^ 

1 Le Jeune, Relation, 1636, 5 (Cramoisy). "Monsieur le Gouverneur 
86 transporte aux Cabanes de ces pauures barbares, siiivy d'une leste 
Noblesse. Je vous laisse a penser quel estonnement a ces Peuples de 
voir tant d'e'carlate, taut de personnes bien taites sous leurs toita 
d'ecorce ! " 

2 Ibid., 83 (Cramoisy). 



1636.] PERVOES FOR THE MISSION. 151 

A considerable remforcement came out with 
Montmagny, and among the rest several men of 
birth and substance, with their families and de- 
pendants. " It was a sight to thank God for," 
exclaims Father Le Jeune, "to behold these deli- 
cate young ladies and these tender infants issuing 
from their wooden prison, like day from the shades 
of night." The Father, it will be remembered, had 
for some years past seen nothing but squaws, with 
papooses swathed like mummies and strapped to a 
board. 

He was even more pleased with the contents 
of a huge packet of letters that was placed in 
his hands, bearing the signatiu-es of nuns, priests, 
soldiers, courtiers, and princesses. A great in- 
terest in the mission had been kindled in France. 
Le Jeune's printed Relations had been read with 
avidity; and his Jesuit brethren, who, as teachers, 
preachers, and confessors, had spread themselves 
through the nation, had successfully fanned the ris- 
ing flame. The Father Superior finds no words for 
his joy. " Heaven," he exclaims, '•' is the conductoi 
of this enterprise. Nature's arms are not long 
enough to touch so many hearts."^ He reads how 
in a single convent, thirteen nuns have devoted 
themselves by a vow to the work of converting the 
Indian women and chikhen ; how, iu the church 
of Montmartre, a nun lies prostrate day and night 
before the altar, praying for the mission ; ^ how 

1 " C'est Dieu qui conduit cette entreprise. La Nature n'a pas lea 
bras assez longs," etc. — Relation, 1636, 3. 

2 Brebeuf, Relation des Hurojis, 1636, 76. 



152 QUEBEC AND ITS TENANTS. [1636. 

*' the Carmelites are all on fire, the Ursulines full 
of zeal, the sisters of the Visitation have no words 
to speak their ardor " ; ^ how some person unknown, 
but blessed of Heaven, means to found a school 
for Huron children ; how the Duchesse d'Aiguillon 
has sent out six workmen to build a hospital for 
the Indians ; how, in every house of the Jesuits, 
young priests turn eager eyes towards Canada; and 
how, on the voyage thither, the devils raised a 
tempest, endeavoring, in vain fury, to drown the 
invaders of their American domain.^ 

Great was Le Jeune's delight at the exalted 
rank of some of those who gave their patronage 
to the mission ; and again, and again his satisfac- 
tion flows from his pen in mysterious allusions to 
these eminent persons.' In his eyes, the vicious 
imbecile who sat on the throne of France was the 
anointed champion of the Faith, and the cruel and 
ambitious priest who ruled king and nation alike 
was the chosen instrument of Heaven. Church 
and State, linked in alliance close and potential, 
played faithfully into each other's hands ; and that 
enthusiasm, in which the Jesuit saw the direct 
inspiration of God, was fostered by aU the prestige 

1 Le Jeune, Relation, 1636, 6. Compare "Divers Sentimens," ap- 
pended to the Relation of 1635. 

- " L'f^nfer enrageant de nous veoir aller en la Nouuelle France pour 
conuertir les infidelles et diminuer sa puissance, par dc'pit il sousleuoit 
tous les Elemens contre nous, et vouloit abysmer la flotte." — Divers Sen- 
timens. 

3 Among his correspondents was the young Due d'Enghien, after- 
wards the Great Conde, at this time fifteen years old. "Dieu soit loiie! 
tout le oiel de nostre chere Patrie nous promet de fauorables influences, 
insques a ce nouuel astre, qui commence a paroistre parmy ceux de la 
premiere grandeur." — Lc Jeune, Relation, 1636, 3, 4. 



1636-46.] PEIESTLY AUTHORITY. 153 

of royalty and all the patronage of power. And, 
as often happens where the mterests of a hierarchy 
are identified with the interests of a ruling class, 
reh'gion was become a fashion, as graceful and as 
comforting as the courtier's embroidered mantle or 
the court lady's robe of fur. 

Such, we may well beheve, was the complexion 
of the enthusiasm which animated some of Le 
Jeune's noble and princely correspondents. But 
there were deeper fervors, glowing in the still 
depths of convent cells, and kindling the breasts 
of their inmates with quenchless longings. Yet 
we hear of no zeal for the mission among religious 
communities of men. The Jesuits regarded the 
field as their own, and desired no rivals. They 
looked forward to the day when Canada should 
be another Paraguay.^ It was to the combustible 
hearts of female recluses that the torch was most 
busily applied ; and here, accordingly, blazed forth 
a prodigious and amazing flame. " If all had their 
pious will," writes Le Jeune, " Quebec would soon 
be flooded with nuns." ^ 

Both Montmagny and De Lisle were half 
churchmen, for both were Knights of Malta. 
More and more the powers spiritual engrossed the 
colony. As nearly as might be, the sword itself 
was in priestly hands. The Jesuits were all in 
all. Authority, absolute and without appeal, was 

1 " Que si celuy qui a escrit cette lettre a leu la Relation de ce qui se 
passe au Paraguais, qu'il a veu ce qui se fera un jour en la Nouuelle 
France." — Le Jeune, Relation, 1637, 304 (Cramoisy). 

2 Chaulmer. Le Nouveau Monde Chrestien, 41, is eloquent on this 
theme 



154 QUEBEC AND ITS TENANTS. [1640. 

vested in a council composed of the governor, Le 
Jeune, and the syndic, an official supposed to rep- 
resent the interests of the inhabitants.' There was 
no tribunal of justice, and the governor pronounced 
summarily on all complaints. The church adjoined 
the fort ; and before it Avas planted a stake bearuig 
a placard with a prohibition against blasphemy, 
drunkenness, or neglect of mass and other relig- 
ious rites. To the stake was also attached a 
chain and iron collar ; and hard by was a wooden 
horse, whereon a culprit was now and then mounted 
by way of example and wai-ning.^ In a community 
so absolutely priest-governed, overt offences were, 
however, rare ; and, except on the annual arrival 
of the ships from France, when the rock swarmed 
with godless sailors, Quebec was a model of deco- 
rum, and wore, as its chroniclers tell us, an aspect 
unspeakably edifying. 

In the year 1640, various new establishments 
of religion and charity might have been seen at 
Quebec. There was the beginning of a college 
and a seminary for Huron children, an embryo Ur- 
suline convent, an incipient hospital, and a new 
Algonquin mission at a place called Sillery, four 
miles distant, Champlain's fort had been enlarged 
and partly rebuilt m stone by ]Montmagny, who 
had also laid out streets on the site of the future 
city, though as yet the streets had no houses. 
Behind the fort, and very near it, stood the church 
and a house for the Jesuits. Both were of pine 

1 Le Clerc, Elahlissement de la Foy, Chap. XV. 

2 Le Jpune, Relation, 1636, 153, 154 (CramoisyJ 



1640.J THE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES. 155 

wood; and this year, 1640, both were burned to 
the ground, to be afterwards rebuilt in stone. The 
Jesuits, however, continued to occupy their rude 
mission-house of Notre-Dame des Anges, on the 
St. Charles, where we first found them. 

The country around Quebec was still an un- 
broken wilderness, with the exception of a small 
clearmg made by the Sieur Giffard on his seigniory 
of Beauport, another made by M. de Puiseaux 
between Quebec and Sillery, and possibly one or 
two feeble attempts in other quarters.^ The total 
population did not much exceed two hundred, in- 
cluding women and children. Of this number, 
by far the greater part were agents of the fur com- 
pany kno^vn as the Hundred Associates, and men 
in their employ. Some of these had brought over 
their families. The remaining inhabitants were 
priests, nuns, and a very few colonists. 

The Company of the Hundred Associates was 
bound by its charter to send to Canada four thou- 
sand colonists before the year 1643.^ It had nei- 
ther the means nor the will to fulfil this engage- 
ment. Some of its members were willing to make 
personal sacrifices for promoting the missions, and 
building up a colony purely Catholic. Others 
thought only of the profits of trade ; and the prac- 
tical affairs of the company had passed entirely 

1 For Giffard, Puiseaux, and other colonists, compare Langevin, ^oifes 
sur les Archives de Notre-Dame de Beauport, 5, 6, 7 ; Ferland, Notes sur les 
Archives de N. D. de Quebec, 22, 24 (1863); Ibid., Cours d'Eistoire du 
Canada, I. 266 ; Le Jeune, Relation, 1636, 45 ; Faillon, Uistoire de la Colo 
nie Frangaise, I. c. iv., v. 

2 See " Pioneers of France," 399. 



156 QUEBEC AND ITS TEJ^ANTS. [1640, 

into the hands of this portion of its members. 
They sought to evade obligations the fulfilment 
of which would have ruined them. Instead of 
sending out colonists, they granted lands with the 
condition that the grantees should furnish a cer- 
tain number of settlers to clear and till them, and 
these were to be credited to the Company.^ The 
grantees took the land, but rarely fulfilled the 
condition. Some of these grants were corrupt and 
iniquitous. Thus, a son of Lauson, president of 
the Company, received, in the name of a third 
person, a tract of land on the south side of the St. 
Lawrence of sixty leagues front. To this were 
added all the islands in that river, excepting those 
of Montreal and Orleans, together with the exclu- 
sive right of fishing in it through its whole extent.^ 
Lauson sent out not a single colonist to these vast 
concessions. 

There was no real motive for emigration. No 
persecution expelled the colonist from his home ; \ 
for none but good Catholics were tolerated in. New! 
France. The settler could not trade with the] 
Indians, except on condition of selling again toj 
the Company at a fixed price. He might hunt, 
but he could not fish ; and he was forced to beg ; 

1 This appears in many early grants of the Company. Thus, in a j 
grant to Simon Le Maitre, Jan. 15, 1636, "que les hommes que le dit| 
. . . fera passer en la X. F. tourneront a la decharge de la dite Com- 
pagnie," etc., etc. — See Pieces sur la Tenure Seigneuriale, published by the j 
Canadian government, passim. 

2 Archives da Se'minaire de Yillemarie, cited by Faillon, I. 350. Lau- j 
son's father owned Montreal. The son's grant extended from the River] 
St. Francis to a point far above Montreal. — La Fontaine, Memoire sur la\ 
Famille de Lauson. 



IblO.] CONVENTS. — HOSPITALS. 157 

or buy food for years before he could obtain it from 
that rude soil in sufficient quantity for the wants 
of his family. The Company imported provisions 
every year for those in its employ ; and of these 
supplies a portion was needed for the relief of 
starving settlers. Giffard and his seven men on his 
seigniory of Beauport were for some time the only 
settlers — excepting, perhaps, the Hebert family — 
who could support themselves throughout the 
year. The rigor of the climate repelled the emi- 
grant; nor were the attractions Avhich Father Le 
Jeune held forth — " piety, freedom, and inde- 
pendence " — of a nature to entice him across the 
sea, when it is remembered that this freedom con- 
sisted in subjection to the arbitrary will of a priest 
and a soldier, and in the liability, should he forget 
to go to mass, of being made fast to a post with a 
collar and chain, like a dog. 

Aside from the fur trade of the Company, the 
whole life of the colony was in missions, convents, 
religious schools, and hospitals. Here on the rock 
of Quebec were the appendages, useful and other- 
wise, of an old-established civilization. While as 
yet there were no inhabitants, and no immediate 
hope of any, there were institutions for the care 
of children, the sick, and the decrepit. All these 
were supported by a charity in most cases precari 
ous. The Jesuits relied chiefly on the Company, 
who, by the terms of their patent, were obliged to 
maintain religious worship.^ Of the origin of the 

1 It is a principle of the Jesuits, that each of its establishments shall 
find a support of its own, and not be a burden on the general funds of 

14 



158 QUEBEC AND ITS TENANTS. [1640. 

convent, hospital, and seminary I shall soon have 
occasion to speak. 

Quebec wore an aspect half military, half mo- 
nastic. At sunrise and sunset, a squad of soldiers 
in the pay of the Company paraded in the fort ; 
and, as in Champlain's time, the bells of the church 
rang morning, noon, and night. Confessions, mass- 
es, and penances were punctiliously observed ; and, 
from the governor to the meanest laborer, the 
Jesuit watched and guided all. The social atmos- 
phere of New England itself was not more suffo- 
cating. By day and by night, at home, at church, 
or at his daily work, the colonist lived under the 
eyes of busy and over-zealous priests. At timey, 
the denizens of Quebec grew restless. In 1639, 
deputies were covertly sent to beg relief in France, 
^nd " to represent the hell in which the consciences 
of the colony were kept by the union of the tem- 
poral and spiritual authority in the same hands." ^ 
In 1642, partial and ineffective measures were 
taken, with the countenance of Richelieu, for in- 
troducing into New France an Order less greedy 
of seigniories and endowments than the Jesuits, 

the Society. The Relations are full of appeals to the charity of devout 
persons in behalf of the missions. 

" Of what use to the country at this period could have been two com- 
munities of cloistered nuns 1 " asks the modern historian of the Ursu- 
lines of Quebec. And he answers by citing the words of Pope Gregory 
the Great, who, when Eome was ravaged by famine, pestilence, and the 
barbarians, declared that his only hope was in the prayers of tlie three 
thousand nuns then assembled in the holy city. — Les Ursulines de Quebec. 
Introd., XI. 

1 "Pour leur representer la gehenne oil estoient les consciences de la 
Colonie, de se voir gouverne par les mesmes personnes pour le spirituel 
et pour le temporel." — Le Clerc, I. 478. 



1636-46.] THE PRIEST AS A EULER. 159 

and less prone to political encroachment.^ No fa- 
vorable result followed ; and the colony remained 
as before, in a pitiful state of cramping and dwarf- 
ing vassalage. 

This is the view of a heretic. It was the aim 
of the founders of New France to build on a 
foundation purely and supremely Catholic. What 
this involved is plain ; for no degree of personal 
virtue is a guaranty against the evils which attach 
to the temporal rule of ecclesiastics. Burning with 
love and devotion to Christ and his immaculate 
Mother, the fervent and conscientious priest re- 
gards with mixed pity and indignation those who 
fail in this supreme allegiance. Piety and charity 
alike demand that he should bring back the rash 
wanderer to the fold of his divine Master, and 
snatch him from the perdition into which his guilt 
must otherwise plunge him. And while he, the 
priest, himself yields reverence and obedience to 
the Superior, in whom he sees the representative 
of Deity, it behooves him, in his degree, to require 
obedience from those whom he imagines that God 
has conhded to his guidance. His conscience, then, 
acts m perfect accord with the love of power 
innate in the human heart. These allied forces 
mingle with a perplexing subtlety ; pride, dis- 
guised even from itself, walks in the likeness of 
love and duty; and a thousand times on the pages 



1 Declaration de Pierre Brea.nt, par devant les Notaires du Roy, MS The 
Order was that of the Capuchins, who, like the Recollets, are a branch of 
the Franciscans. Their introduction into Canada was prevented ; but 
they estabhshed themselves in Maine. 



160 QUEBEC AND ITS TENANTS. [1636-46, 

of history we find Hell beguiling the virtues of 
Heaven to do its work. The instinct of domi- 
nation is a weed that grows rank in the shadow 
of the temple, climbs over it, possesses it, covers 
its ruin, and feeds on its decay. The unchecked 
sway of priests has always been the most mischiev- 
ous of tyrannies ; and even were they all well- 
meaning and sincere, it would be so still. 

To the Jesuits, the atmosphere of Quebec was 
well-nigh celestial. " In the climate of New 
France," they write, " one learns perfectly to seek 
only God, to have no desire but God, no purpose 
but for God." And again : " To live in New 
France is in truth to live in the bosom of God." 
" If," adds Le Jeune, " any one of those who die 
in this country goes to perdition, I think he will 
be doubly guilty." ^ 

The very amusements of this pious community 
were acts of religion. Thus, on the fete-day of St. 
Joseph, the patron of New France, there was a 
show of fireworks to do him honor. In the forty 
volumes of the Jesuit Relations there is but one 
pictorial illustration ; and this represents the pyro- 
technic contrivance in question, together with a fig- 
ure of the Governor in the act of touching it ofi'.'' 

1 " La Nouuelle France est vn vray climat ou on apprend parfaicte- 
ment bien a ne cherclier que Dieu, ne desirer que Dieu seul, auoir I'inten- 
tion purement II Dieu, etc. . . . Viure en la Nouuelle France, c'est a vray 
dire viure dans le sein de Dieu, et ne respirer que Fair de sa Diuine con- 
duite." — Divers Sentimens. " Si quelqu'un de ceux qui meurent en ces 
contre'es se damne, je croy qu'il sera doublement coupable." — Relation, 
1640, 5 (Cramoisy). 

2 Relation, 1637, 8. The Relations, as originally published, comprised 
about forty volumes. 



1G36-46.] PLAYS. — PROCESSIONS. 161 

But, what is more curious, a Catholic writer of 
the pi-esent day, the Abbe Faillon, in an elabo- 
rate and learned work, dilates at length on the 
details of the display ; and this, too, with a gravity 
which evinces his conviction that squibs, rockets, 
blue-lights, and serpents are important instruments 
for the saving of souls. ^ On May-Day of the same 
year, 1637, Montmagny planted before the church 
a May-pole surmounted by a triple crown, beneath 
which were three symbolical circles decorated with 
wreaths, and bearing severally the names, lesus^ 
Maria, Joseph ; the soldiers drew up before it, and 
saluted it with a volley of musketry.^ 

On the anniversary of the Dauphin's birth there 
was a dramatic performance, in which an unbe- 
liever, speaking Algonquin for the profit of the 
Indians present, was hunted into Hell by fiends.*"' 
Religious processions were frequent. In one of 
them, the Governor in a court dress and a baptized 
Indian in beaver-skins were joint supporters of the 
canopy which covered the Host."* In another, six 
Indians led the van, arrayed each in a velvet coat 
of scarlet and gold sent them by the King. Then 
came other Indian converts, two and two ; then the 
foundress of the Ursuline convent, with Indian chil- 
dren in French gowns.; then all the Indian girls 
and women, dressed after their own way ; then the 
priests ; then the Governor ; and finally the whole 
French population, male and female, except the 
artillery-men at the fort, who saluted with their 

1 Eistoire de la Colonie Frangaise, I. 291, 292. 2 Relation, 1637, 82 

3 Vimont, Relation, 1610, 6. * Le Jeune, Relation, 1638, 6 

14* 



162 QUEBEC AND ITS TENANTS. [1636-46. 

camion the cross and banner borne at the head of 
the procession. When all was over, the Governor 
and the Jesuits rewarded the Indians with a feast. ^ 

Now let the stranger enter the church of Notre- 
Dame de la Recouvrance, after vespers. It is full, 
to the very porch: officers in slouched hats and 
plumes, musketeers, pikemen, mechanics, and la- 
borers. Here is Montmagny himself; Repentigny 
and Poterie, gentlemen of good birth ; damsels of 
nurture ill fitted to the Canadian woods ; and, min- 
gled with these, the motionless Indians, wrapped to 
the throat in embroidered moose-hides. Le Jeune, 
not in priestly vestments, but in the common black 
dress of his Order, is before the altar ; and on either 
side is a row of small red-skinned children listening 
with exemplary decorum, while, with a cheerful, 
smiling face, he teaches them to kneel, clasp their 
hands, and sign the cross. All the prmcipal mem 
bers of this zealous community are present, at once 
amused and edified at the grave deportment, and 
the prompt, shi'ill replies of the infant catechu- 
mens ; while their parents in the crowd grin de- 
light at the gifts of beads and trinkets with which 
Le Jeune rewards his most pr )ficient pupils.^ 

We have seen the methods of conversion prac- 
tised among the Hurons. They were much the 
same at Quebec. The principal appeal was to 
fear.^ " You do good to your friends," said Le 
Jeune to an Algonquin chief, " and you burn your 

1 Le Jeune, Relation, 1639, 3. 

2 Le Jeune, Relation, 1637, 122 (Cramoisy). 

3 Ibid., 1636, 119, and 1637, 32 (Cramoisy). "La crainte est I'auan 
couriere de la foy dans ces esprits barbares." 



1636-46.] ' CONVEETS. 163 

enemies, God does the same." And he painted 
Hell to the startled neophyte as a place where, 
when he was hungry, he would get nothing to eat 
but frogs and snakes, and, when thu-sty, nothing to 
drink but flames.^ Pictures were found invaluable. 
" These holy representations," pursues the Father 
Superior, " are half the instruction that can be 
given to the Indians. I wanted some pictures of 
Hell and souls in perdition, and a few were sent us 
on paper; but they are too confused. The devils 
and the men are so mixed uJD, that one can make 
out nothing without particular attention. If three, 
four, or five devils were painted tormenting a soul 
with diiferent punishments, — one applying fire, 
another serpents, another tearing him with pincers, 
and another holding him fast with a chain, — this 
would have a good eff'ect, especially if everything 
were made distinct, and misery, rage, and despe- 
ration appeared plainly in his face."^ 

The preparation of the convert for baptism was 
often very slight. A dying Algonquin, who, though 

1 Le Jeune, Relation, 1637, 80-82 (Cramoisy). "Avoir faim et ne 
manger que des serpens et des crapaux, avoir soif et ne boire que des 
flammes." 

2 " Les heretiques sont grandement blasmables, de condamner et de 
briser les images qui ont de si bons efFets. Ces sainctes figures sont la 
moitie de I'instruction qu'on peut donner aux Sauuages. I'auois desire 
quelques portraits de I'enfer et de I'ame daranee ; on nous en a enuoye 
quelques vns en papier, mais cela est trop confus. Les diables sont tene- 
ment meslez auee les hommes, qu'on n'y peut rien recognoistre, qu'auec 
vne particuliere attention. Qui depeindroit trois ou quatre ou cinq 
demons, tourmentans vne arae de diuers supplices, I'vn luy appliquant 
des feux, I'autre des serpens, I'autre la tenaillant, I'autre la tenant lie'e 
auee des chaisnes, cela auroit vn bon effet, notamment si tout estoit bien 
distingue, et que la rage et la tristesse parussent bien en la face de cette 
ame desesperee." — Relation, 1637, 32 (Cramoisy). 



164 QUEBEC AND ITS TENANTS. ' [1636-46. 

meagre as a skeleton, had thrown himself, with a 
last effort of expiring ferocity, on an Iroquois pris- 
oner, and torn off his ear with his teeth, was bap- 
tized almost immediately.^ In the case of converts 
in health there was far more preparation ; yet these 
often apostatized. The various objects of instruc- 
tion may all be included in one comprehensive 
word, submission, — an abdication of will and judg- 
ment in favor of the spiritual dhector, who was the 
interpreter and vicegerent of God. The director's 
function consisted in the enforcement of dogmas 
by which he had himself been subdued, in which 
he believed profoundly, and to which he often 
clung with an absorbing enthusiasm. The Jesuits, 
an Order thoroughly and vehemently reactive, had 
revived in Europe the mediaeval type of Christianity, 
with all its attendant superstitions. Of these the 
Canadian missions bear abundant marks. Yet, on 
the whole, the labors of the missionaries tended 
greatly to the benefit of the Indians. Reclaimed, 
as the Jesuits tried to reclaim them, from their 
wandering life, settled in habits of peaceful indus- 
try, and reduced to a passive and childlike obedi- 

1 " Ce seroit vne estrange cruaute de voir descendre vne ame toute 
viuante dans les enfers, par le refus d'vn bien que lesus Christ luy a 
acquis au prix de son sang." — Relation, 1637, 66 (Cramoisy). 

" Considerez d'autre cote la grande apprehension que nous avions sujet 
de redouter la guerison; pour autant que bien souvent etant gue'ris il ne 
leur reste du St. Bapteme que le caraetere." — Lettres de Gamier, MSS. 

It was not very easy to make an Indian comprehend the nature of 
baptism. An Iroquois at Montreal, hearing a missionary speaking of the 
water wliich cleansed the soul from sin, said that he was well acquainted 
with it, as the Dutch had once given him so much that they were forced 
to tie him, hand and foot, to prevent him from doing mischief. — Faillon, 
n. 43. 



^G36-46.] FORESTERS. 165 

ence, they would have gamed more than enough 
to compensate them for the loss of their ferocious 
and miserable independence. At least, they would 
have escaped annihilation. The Society of Jesus 
aspired to the mastery of all New France ; but the 
methods of its ambition were consistent with a 
Christian benevolence. Had this been otherwise, 
it would have employed other instruments. It 
would not have chosen a Jogues or a Garnier. 
The Society had men for every work, and it used 
them wisely. It utilized the apostolic vh'tues of 
its Canadian missionaries, fanned their enthusiasm, 
and decorated itself with their martyr crowns. With 
joy and gratulation, it saw them rival in another 
hemisphere the noble memory of its saint and hero, 
Francis Xavier.^ 

I have spoken of the colonists as livmg in a 
state of temporal and spiritual vassalage. To this 
there was one exception, — a small class of men 
whose home was the forest, and their companions 
savages. They followed the Indians in their roam- 
ings, lived with them, grew familiar with their 
language, allied themselves with their women, and 
often became oracles in the camp and leaders on the 
war-path. Champlain's bold interpreter, Etienne 
Brule, whose adventures I have recounted else- 
where,^ may be taken as a type of this class. Of 
the rest, the most conspicuous were Jean Nicollet, 
Jacques Hertel, Fran9ois Marguerie, and Nicolas 

1 Enemies of the Jesuits, while denouncing them in unmeasured 
terms, speak in strong eulogy of many of the Canadian missionaries. 
See, for example, Steinraetz, History of the Jesuits, II. 41 5. 

2 "Pioneers of France," 377. 



166 QUEBEC AND ITS TENANTS, [1636-46. 

Marsolet.^ Doubtless, when tliey returned from 
their rovmgs, they often had pressing need of 
penance and absolution; yet, for the most part, 
they were good Catholics, and some of them were 
zealous for the missions. Nicollet and others were 
at times settled as interpreters at Three Kivers and 
Quebec. Several of them were men of great intelli- 
gence and an invincible courage. From hatred of 
restraint, and love of a wild and adventurous inde- 
pendence, they encountered privations and dangers 
scarcely less than those to which the Jesuit exposed 
himself from motives widely different, — he from 
religious zeal, charity, and the hope of Paradise ; 
they simply because they liked it. Some of the 
best families of Canada claim descent from this 
vigorous and hardy stock. 

1 See Ferland, Notes sur les Registres de N. D. de Quebec, 30. 

Nicollet, especially, was a remarkable man. As early as 1639, he 
ascended the Green Bay of Lake Michigan, and crossed to the waters of 
the Mississippi. This was first shown by the researches of Mr. Shea. 
See liis Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, XX. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

1636-1652. 

DEVOTEES AND NUNS. 

The Hdron Seminary. — Madame de la Peltrie. — Her Piotj8 
Schemes. — Her Sham Marriage. — She visits the Ursulines 
OF Tours. — Marie de Saint Bernard. — Marie de l'Incar- 
NATiON. — Her Enthusiasm. — Her Mystical Marriage. — Her 
Dejection. — Her Mental Conflicts. — Her Vision. — Made 
Superior of the Ursulines. — The E^dtel-Dieu. — The Voy- 
age to Canada. — Sillery. — Labors and Sufferings of the 
Nuns. — Character of Marie de l'In carnation. — Of Madame 
DE LA Peltrie. 

Quebec, as we have seen, had a seminary, a 
hospital, and a convent, before it had a population. 
It will be well to observe the origin of these insti- 
tutions. 

The Jesuits from the first had cherished the 
plan of a seminary for Huron boys at Quebec. 
The Governor and the Company favored the de- 
sign ; since not only would it be an efficient means 
of spreading the Faith and attaching the tribe to 
the French interest, but the children would be 
pledges for the good behavior of the narents, and 
hostages for the safety of missionaries and traders 

[1671 



168 DEVOTEES AND NUNS. [1620-86. 

in the Indian towns. ^ In the summer of 1636, 
Father Daniel, descending from the Huron country, 
worn, emaciated, his cassock patched and tattered, 
and his shirt in rags, brought with him a boy, to 
whom two others were soon added; and through 
the influence of the interpreter, Nicollet, the num- 
ber was afterwards increased by several more. One 
of them ran away, two ate themselves to death, 
a fourth was carried home by his father, while 
three of those remaining stole a canoe, loaded it 
with all they could lay their hands upon, and 
escaped in triumph with their plunder.* 

The begmnmg was not hopeful ; but the Jesuits 
persevered, and at length established their seminary 
on a firm basis. The Marquis de Gamache had 
given the Society six thousand crowns for founding 
a college at Quebec. In 1637, a year before the 
building of Harvard College, the Jesuits began a 
wooden structure in the rear of the fort ; and here, 
within one in closure, was the Huron seminary and 
the college for French boys. 

Meanwhile the female children of both races 
were without instructors ; but a remedy was at 
hand. At Alen^on, in 1603, was born Marie Made- 
leine de Chauvigny, a scion of the haute noblesse 
of Normandy. Seventeen years later she was a 
young lady, abundantly wilful and superabundantly 
enthusiastic, — one who, in other circumstances, 
might perhaps have made a romantic elopement 

1 " M. de Montmagny cognoit bien riraportance de ce Seminaire pour 
la gloire de Nostre Seigneur, et pour le Commerce de ces Messieurs." — 
Relation, 1637, 209 (Craraoisy). 

2 Le Jeune, Relation, 1637, 55-59. Ibid., Relation, 1638, 23. 



1626-36.] MADAME DE LA PELTRIE. 169 

and a mesalliance} But her impressible and ardent 
nature was absorbed in other objects. Religion 
and its ministers possessed her wholly, and all her 
enthusiasm was spent on works of charity and 
devotion. Her father, passionately fond of her, 
lesisted her inclination for the cloister, and sought 
to wean her back to the world; but she escaped 
from the chateau to a neighboring convent, where 
she resolved to remain. Her father followed, car- 
ried her home, and engaged her in a round of 
fetes and hunting parties, in the midst of which 
she found herself surprised into a betrothal to M. 
de la Peltrie, a young gentleman of rank and char- 
acter. The marriage proved a happy one, and 
Madame de la Peltrie, with an excellent grace, bore 
her part in the world she had wished to renounce. 
After a union of five years, her husband died, and 
she was left a widow and childless at the age of 
twenty-two. She returned to the religious ardors 
of her girlhood, again gave all her thoughts to 
devotion and charity, and again resolved to be a 
nun. She had heard of Canada ; and when Le 
Jeune's first Relations appeared, she read them 
with avidity. " Alas ! " wrote the Father, " is there 
no charitable and virtuous lady who will come to 
this country to gather up the blood of Christ, by 
teaching His word to the little Indian girls ? " 

1 There is a portrait of her, taken at a later period, of which a photo- 
graph is before me. Slie has a semi-religious dress, hands clasped in 
prayer, large dark eyes, a smiling and mischievous mouth, and a face 
somewhat pretty and very coquettish. An engraving from the portrait 
is prefixed to the " Notice Biographique de Madame de la Peltrie " in Les 
Ursulincs de Quebec, I. 348. 

15 



170 DEVOTEES AND NUNS. [1626-36. 

His appeal found a prompt and vehement response 
from the breast of Madame de la Peltrie. Thence- 
forth she thought of nothing but Canada. In the 
midst of her zeal, a fever seized her. The physi- 
cians despaired ; but, at the height of the disease, 
the patient made a vow to St. Joseph, that, should 
God restore her to health, she would build a house 
in honor of Him in Canada, and give her life and 
her wealth to the instruction of Indian girls. On 
the following morning, say her biographers, the 
fever had left her. 

]Mean while her relatives, or those of he* husband, 
had confirmed her pious pui'poses by attempting to 
thwart them. They pronounced her a romantic vis- 
ionary, incompetent to the charge of her property. 
Her father, too, whose fondness for her mcreased 
with his advancing age, entreated her to remain 
with him while he lived, and to defer the execution 
of her plans till he should be laid in his grave. 
From entreaties he passed to commands, and at 
length threatened to disinherit her, if she persisted. 
The virtue of obedience, for which she is extolled 
by her clerical biographers, however abundantly 
exhibited in respect to those who held charge of 
her conscience, was singularly wanting towards the 
parent who, in the way of Nature, had the best 
claim to its exercise; and Madame de la Poltrie 
was more than ever resolved to go to Canada. Her 
father, on his part, was urgent that she should marry 
again. On this she took counsel of a Jesuit,^ who, 

1 "Partagee ainsi entre I'amour filial et la religion, en proie aux plus 
poignautes augoisses, elle s'adressa a un religieux de la Compagnie do 



1638.] A SHAM MAERIAGE. 171 

" having seriously reflected before God," suggested 
a device, which to the heretical mind is a little 
startling, but which commended itself to Madame 
de la Peltrie as fitted at once to soothe the troubled 
spirit of her father, and to save her from the sin 
involved in the abandonment of her pious designs. 
Among her acquaintance was M. de BerniereSj 
a gentleman of high rank, great wealth, and zeal- 
ous devotion. She wrote to him, explained the 
situation, and requested him to feign a marriage 
with her. His sense of honor recoiled : moreover, 
in the fulness of his zeal, he had made a vow of 
chastity, and an apparent breach of it would cause 
scandal. He consulted his spiritual director and 
a few intimate friends. All agreed that the glory 
of God was concerned, and that it behooved him 
to accept the somewhat singular overtures of the 
young widow,^ and request her hand from her fa- 
ther. M. de Chauvigny, who greatly esteemed Ber- 
nieres, was delighted ; and his delight was raised 
to transport at the dutiful and modest acquiescence 
of his daughter.^ A betrothal took place ; all was 

Jesus, dont elle connaissait la prudence consommee, et le supplia de 
Teclairer de ses lumieres. Ce religieux, apres y avoir scrieusement 
re'flechi devant Dieu, lui re'pondit qu'il croyait avoir trouve' un moyen de 
tout concilier." — Casgrain, Vie de Marie de I' Incarnation, 243. 

1 Enfin apres avoir longtemps implore les lumieres du ciel, il remit 
toute I'affaire entre les mains de son directeur et de quelques amis intimes. 
Tous, d'un commun accord, lui de'clarerent que la gloire de Dieu y etait 
interesse'e, et qu'il devait accepter." — Ibid., 244. 

2 " The prudent young widow answered him with much respect and 
m' desty, that, as she knew M. de Bernieres to be a favorite with him, 
she also preferred him to all others." 

The above is from a letter of Marie de I'lncarnation, translated by 
Mother St. Thomas, of the Ursuline convent of Quebec, in her Life of 
Miiddine de la Peltrie, 41. Compare Les Ursidines de Que'bec, 10, and the 
" Notice Biographique " in the same volume. 



172 DEVOTEES ilND NUNS. [1638. 

harmony, and for a time no more was said of dis- 
inheriting Madame de la Peltrie, or p^itting her in 
wardship. 

Bernieres's scruples returned. Divided between 
honor and conscience, he postponed the marriage, 
until at length M. de Chauvigny conceived mis- 
givings, and again began to speak of disinheriting 
his daughter, unless the engagement was fulfilled.^ 
Bernieres yielded, and went with Madame de la 
Peltrie to consult "the most eminent divines."^ A 
sham marriage took place, and she and her accom- 
plice appeared ui public as man and wife. Her 
relatives, however, had already renewed thek at- 
tempts to deprive her of the control of her prop- 
erty. A suit, of what nature does not appear, had 
been decided against her at Caen, and she had 
appealed to the Parliament of Normandy. Her 
lawyers were in despair; but, as her biographer 
justly observes, " the saints have resources which 
others have not." A vow to St. Joseph secured 
his intercession and gained her case. Another 
thought now filled her with agitation. Her plans 
were laid, and the time of action drew near. How 
could she endure the distress of her father, when 
be learned that she had deluded him with a false 

1 " Our virtuous widow did not lose courage. As she had given her 
lonfidence to M. de Bernieres, she informed him of all that passed, while 
the flattered her father each day, telling him that this nobleman was too 
lionorable to fail in keeping his word." — St. Thomas, Life of Madame de 
\a Peltrie, 42. 

2 "He" (Bernieres) "went to stay at the house of a mutual friend, 
where they had frequent opportunities of seeing each other, and consult- 
ing the most eminent divines on the means of effecting this pretended 
marriage." — Ibid., 43. 



1639.] THE URSULINES OF TOURS. 173 

marriage, and that she and all that was hers were 
bound for the wilderness of Canada '? Happily for 
him, he fell ill, and died in ignorance of the deceit 
that had been practised upon him.^ 

Whatever may be thought of the quality of 
Madame de la Peltrie's devotion, there can be no 
reasonable doubt of its sincerity or its ardor; and 
yet one can hardly fail to see in her the signs of 
that restless longing for eclat, which, with some 
women, is a ruling passion. When, in company 
with Bernieres, she passed from Alen^on to Tours, 
and from Tours to Paris, an object of attention 
to nuns, priests, and prelates, — when the Queen 
herself summoned her to an interview, — it may 
be that the profound contentment of soul ascribed 
to her had its origin in sources not exclusively of 
the spirit. At Tours, she repaired to the Ursuline 
convent. The Superior and all the nuns met her 

1 It will be of interest to observe the view taken of this pretended 
marriage by Madame de la Peltrie's Catholic biographers. Charlevoix 
tells the story without comment, but with apparent approval. Sainte- 
Foi, in his Premieres Ursulines de France, says, that, as God had taken her. 
under His guidance, we should not venture to criticize her. Casgraiu, in 
his Vie de Marie de I' Incarnation, remarks : — 

" Une telle conduite pent encore aujourd'hui paraitre etrange a bien 
des personnes ; mais outre que I'avenir fit bien voir que c'e'tait une inspi- 
ration du ciel, nous pouvons repondre, avec un savant et pieux auteur, 
que nous ne devons point juger ceux que Dieu se charge lui-meme de 
eonduire." — p. 247. 

Mother St. Thomas highly approves the proceeding, and says : — 

" Thus ended the pretended engagement of this virtuous lady and 
gentleman, which caused, at the time, so much inquiry and excitement 
among the nobility in France, and which, after a lapse of two hundred 
years, cannot fail exciting feelings of admiration in the heart of every 
virtuous woman ! " 

Surprising as it may appear, the book from which the above is taken 
was written a few years since, in so-called Enghsh, for the instruction of 
the pupils in the Ursuline Convent at Quebec. 

15* 



174 DEVOTEES AND NUNS. [1639. 

at the entrance of the cloister, and, separating 
into two rows as she appeared, sang the Veni 
Creator, while the bell of the monastery sounded 
its loudest peal. Then they led her in triumph to 
their church, sang Te Deum, and, while the hon- 
ored guest knelt before the altar, all the sisterhood 
knelt around her in a semicircle. Their hearts 
beat high within them. That day they were to 
know who of their number were chosen for the new 
convent of Quebec, of which Madame de la Peltrie 
was to be the foundress ; and when then- devotions 
were over, they flung themselves at her feet, each 
beffsins: with tears that the lot misrht fall on her. 
Aloof from this throng of enthusiastic suppliants 
stood a young nun, Marie de St. Bernard, too timid 
and too modest to ask the boon for which her fer- 
vent heart was longing. It was granted without 
asking. This delicate girl was chosen, and chosen 
wisely.^ 

There was another nun who stood apart, silent 
and motionless, — a stately figui'e, with features 
strongly marked and perhaps somewhat mascu- 
line ; ^ but, if so, they belied her, for Marie de 
ITncarnation was a woman to the core. For her 
there was no need of entreaties; for she knew that 

1 Casgrain, Vie de Marie de I'Incaiimtion, 271-273. There is a longJ 
account of Marie de St. Bernard, by Ragueneau, in the Relation of 1652.r 
Here it is said tliat she showed an unaccountable indifference as toj 
whether she went to Canada or not, which, however, was followed by an| 
ardent desire to go. 

2 There is an engraved portrait of her, taken some years later, of; 
which a photograph is before me. When she was " in the world," herj 
stately proportions are said to have attracted general -attention. Her! 
family name was Marie Guyard. She was born on the eighteenth of J 
October, 1599. 



1620-38.] A MYSTICAL MARRIAGE. 175 

the Jesuits had made her their choice, as Supe- 
rior of the new convent. She was born, forty 
years before, at Tours, of a good bourgeois family. 
As she grew up towards maturity, her qualities 
soon declared themselves. She had uncommon 
talents and strong religious susceptibilities, joined 
to a vivid imagination, — an alliance not always 
desirable under a form of faith where both are 
excited by stimulants so many and so powerful. 
Like Madame de la Peltrie, she married, at the 
desire of her parents, in her eighteenth year. The 
marriage was not happy. Her biographers say 
that there was no fault on either side. Apparently, 
it was a severe case of "incompatibility." She 
sought Ixer consolation in the churches ; and, kneel- 
ing in dim chapels, held communings with Christ 
and the angels. At the end of two years her hus- 
band died, leaving her with an infant son. She 
gave him to the charge of her sister, abandoned 
herself to solitude and nieditation, and became a 
mystic of the intense and passional school. Yet 
a strong maternal instinct battled painfully in her 
breast with a sense of religious vocation. Dreams, 
visions, interior voices, ecstasies, revulsions, periods 
of rapture and periods of deep dejection, made up 
the agitated tissue of her life. She fasted, wore 
hair-cloth, scourged herself, washed dishes among 
the servants, and did their most menial work. She 
heard, in a trance, a miraculous voice. It was 
that of Christ, promising to become her spouse. 
Months and years passed, full of troubled hopes 
and fears, when atjam the voice sounded in her 



17b DEVOTEES AND NUNS. [10:20-38. 

ear, with assurance that the promise was fulfilled, 
and that she was indeed his bride. Now ensued 
phenomena which are not infrequent among Eo- 
man Catholic female devotees, when unmarried, or 
married unhappily, and which have their source 
»in the necessities of a woman's nature. To her m 
excited thought, her di^dne spouse became a living 1 
presence ; and her language to him, as recorded • ■ 
by herself, is that of the most intense passion. She 
went to prayer, agitated and tremulous, as if to a 
meeting with an earthly lover. "O my Love!" she 
exclaimed, "when shall I embrace you? Have 
you no pity on me in the torments that I suffer? 
Alas ! alas ! my Love, my Beauty, my Life ! instead 
of healing my pain, you take pleasure in it. Come, 
let me embrace you, and die in your sacred arms ! " 
And again she writes : " Then, as I was spent with 
fatigue, I was forced to say, ' My divine Love, 
since you wish me to live, I pray you let me rest 
a little, that I may the better serve you'; and I 
promised him that afterward I would suffer myself 
to consume in his chaste and divine embraces." ^ 

1 " Allant a I'oraison, je tressaillois en moi-meme, et disois : AUons 
dans la solitude, mon cher amour, afin que je vous embrasse a men aise, 
et que, respirant mon ame en vous, elle ne soit plus que vous-meme par 
union d'amour. . . . Puis, mon corps etant brise de fatigues, j'etois con- 
trainte de dire : Mon divin amour, je vous prie de me laisser prendre un 
peu de repos, afin que je puisse mieux vous servir, puisque vous voulez 
que je vive. . . . Je le priois de me laisser agir; lui promettant de nie 
laisser apres cela consumer dans ses chastes et divins embrassemens. 
... amour ! quand vous embrasserai-je t N'avez-vous point pitic de , 
moi dans le tourment que je souffre 1 helas ! helas ! mon amour, maj 
beaute, ma vie ! au lieu de me guerir, vous vous plaisez a mes maux. 
Venez done que je vous embrasse, et que je meure entre vos brasJ 
sacrez ! " 

The above passajres. from various pages of her journal, will suffice,] 



1620-38.] CONFESSOKS. 177 

Clearly, here is a case for the physiologist as 
well as the theologian ; and the " holy widow," 
as her biographers call her, becomes an example, 
and a lamentable one, of the tendency of the erotic 
principle to ally itself with high religious excite- 
ment. ^^ 

But the wings of imagination will the and di-oop, 
the brightest dream-land of contemplative fancy 
grow dim, and an abnormal tension of the faculties 
find its inevitable reaction at last. From a condi- 
tion of highest exaltation, a mystical heaven of 
light and glory, the unhappy dreamer fell back to 
a dreary earth, or rather to an abyss of darkness 
and misery. Her biographers tell us that she 
became a prey to dejection, and thoughts of infi- 
delity, despau', estrangement from God, aversion 
to mankind, pride, vanity, impurity, and a supreme 
disgust at the rites of religion. Exhaustion pro- 
duced common-sense, and the dreams w^hich had 
been her life now seemed a tissue *of illusions. 
Her confessor became a weariness to her, and his 
words fell dead on her ear. Indeed, she conceived 
a repugnance to the holy man. Her old and 

tliough they give but an inadequate idea of these strange extravagances. 
Wliat is most astonisliing is, that a man of sense like Charlevoix, in his 
Life of Marie de I'lncarnation, should extract them in full, as matter of 
edification and evidence of saintship. Her recent biographer, the Abbe 
Casgrain, refrains from quoting them, thougli he mentions them approv- 
ingly as evincing fervor. The Abbe Racine, in his Discours a ['Occasion 
du 192'™^ Anniversaire de I'heureuse Mort de la Ve'ii. Mere de I'lncarnation, 
delivered at Quebec in 1864, speaks of them as transcendent proofs of 
the supreme favor of Heaven. — Some of the pupils of Marie de I'lncar- 
nation also had mystical marriages with Christ; and the impassioned 
rhapsodies of one of them being overheard, she nearly lost her character, 
as it was thought that she was apostrophizing an earthly lover. 



178 DEVOTEES AND NUNS. 1 1620-38. 

favorite confessor, her oracle, guide, and comforter, 
had lately been taken from her by promotion in 
the Church, — which may serve to explain her 
dejection; and the new one, jealous of his prede- 
cessor, told her that all his counsels had been 
visionary and dangerous to her soul. Having over- 
whelmed her with this announcement, he left her, 
apparently out of ]3atience with her refractory and 
gloomy mood ; and she remained for several months 
deprived of spiritual guidance.^ Two years elapsed 
before her mind recovered its tone, when she soared 
once more m the seventh heaven of imaginative 
devotion. 

Marie de I'lncarnation, we have seen, was unre- 
lenting in every practice of humiliation ; dressed 
in mean attire, did the servants' work, nursed sick 
beggars, and, in her meditations, taxed her brain 
with metaphysical processes of self-annihilation. 
And yet, when one reads her " Spmtual Letters," 
the conviction of an enormous spiritual pride in the 
writer can hardly be repressed. She aspired to 
that inner circle of the faithful, that aristocracy of 
devotion, which, while the common herd of Chris- 
tians are busied with the duties of life, eschews the, 
visible and the present, and claims to live only foi 
God. In her strong maternal affection she sawl 
a lure to divert her from the path of perfect saintJ 
ship. Love for her child long withheld her fronil 
becoming a nun ; but at last, fortified by her con-] 
fessor, she left him to his fate, took the vows, anc 
immiu'ed herself with the ITrsulines of Tours. Th.( 

1 Casgrain, 195-197. 



1620-38.] BUSINESS TALENTS OF MAKIE. 179 

boy, frenzied by bis desertion, and urged on by 
indignant relatives, watched his opportunity, and 
made his way into the refectory of the convent, 
screaming to the horrified nuns to give him back 
his mother. As he grew older, her anxiety in- 
creased ; and at length she heard in her seclusion 
that he had fallen into bad company, had left the 
relative who had sheltered him, and run off, no 
one knew whither. The wretched mother, torn 
with anguish, hastened for consolation to her con- 
fessor, who met her with stern upbraidings. Yet, 
even in this her intensest ordeal, her enthusiasm 
and her native fortitude enabled her to maintain a 
semblance of calmness, till she learned that the boy 
had been found and brought back. 

Strange as it may seem, this woman, whose 
habitual state was one of mystical abstraction, was 
gifted to a rare degree with the faculties most 
useful in the practical affairs of life. She had 
spent several years in the house of her brother-in- 
law. Here, on the one hand, her vigils, visions, 
and penances set utterly at nought the order of a 
well-governed family; while, on the other, she made 
amends to her impatient relative by able and effi- 
cient aid in the conduct of his public and private 
affairs. Her biographers say, and doubtless with 
truth, that her heart was far away from these 
mundane interests ; yet her talent for business was 
not the less displayed. Her spiritual guides were 
aware of it, and saw clearly that gifts so useful to 
the world might be made equally useful to the 
Church. Hence it was that she was chosen Supe- 



180 DEVOTEES AJSTD NUNS. [1620-38. 

rior of the convent ^yllicb. Madame de la Peltrie 
was about to endow at Quebec.^ 

Yet it was from heaven itself that Marie de 
rincarnation received her first "vocation" to Can- 
ada. The mu'acle was in this wise. 

In a dream she beheld a lady unknown to her. 
She took her hand; and the two journeyed together 
westward, towards the sea. They soon met one 
of the Apostles, clothed all in white, who, with a 
wave of his hand, directed them on theu* way. 
They now entered on a scene of surpassmg mag- 
nificence. Beneath their feet was a pavement of 
squares of white marble, spotted with vermilion, 
and intersected with lines of vivid scarlet; and 
all around stood monasteries of matchless architec- 
ture. But the two travellers, without stopping to 
admire, moved swiftly on till they beheld the Virgin 
seated with her Infant Son on a small temple of 
white marble, which served her as a throne. She 
seemed about fifteen years of age, and was of a 
" ravishmg beauty." Her head was turned aside ; 
she was gazing fijiedly on a- wild waste of moun- 
tains and valleys, half concealed in mist. Marie 
de rincarnation approached with outstretched arms, 
adoring. The vision bent towards her, and, smiling, 
kissed her three times ; whereupon, in a rapture, 
the dreamer awoke.^ 

1 The combination of religious enthusiasm, however extravagant and 
Tisionary, witli a talent for business, is not very rare. Nearly all the 
founders of monastic Orders are examples of it. 

2 Marie de rincarnation recounts this dream at great 'length in her 
letters; and Casgrain copies the whole, verbatim, as a revelation from 
God. 



1639.] EMBARILA.TION. 181 

She told the visioix to Father Dinet, a Jesuit of 
Tours. He was at no loss for an interpretation. 
The land of mists and mountains was Canada, and 
thither the Virgin called her. Yet one mystery 
remained unsolved. Who was the unknown com- 
panion of her dream? Several years had passed, 
and signs from heaven and inward voices had^ 
raised to an intense fervor her zeal for her new 
vocation, when, for the first time, she saw Madame 
de la Peltrie on her visit to the convent at Tours, 
and recognized, on the instant, the lady of her 
nocturnal vision. No one can be surprised at this 
who has considered with the slightest attention the 
phenomena of religious enthusiasm. 

On the fourth of May, 1639, Madame de la 
Peltrie, Marie de ITncarnation, Marie de St. Ber- 
nard, and another Ursuline, embarked at Dieppe 
for Canada. In the ship Avere also three young 
hospital nuns, sent out to found at Quebec a Hotel- 
Dieu, endowed by the famous niece of Richelieu, 
the Duchesse d'Aiguillon.^ Here, too, were the 
Jesuits Chaumonot and Poncet, on the way to 
their mission, together with Father Vimont, who 
was to succeed Le Jeune in his post of Superior. 
To the nuns, pale from theu' cloistered seclusion, 
there was a strange and startling novelty in this 
new world of life and action, — the ship, the sail- 
ors, the shouts of command, the flapping of sails, 
the salt wind, and the boisterous sea. The voyage 
was long and tedious. Sometimes they lay in their 
berths, sea-sick and woe-begone ; sometimes they 

1 Juchereau, Hisloire de I'Hotel-Dieu de Quebec, 4. 
]6 



182 DEVOTEES AND NUNS. [1639 

sang in choir on deck, or heard mass in the cabin. 
Once, on a misty morning, a wild cry of alarm 
startled crew and passengers alike. A huge ice- 
berg was drifting close upon them. The peril was 
extreme. Madame de la Peltrie clung to Marie 
de rincarnation, who stood perfectly calm, and 
gathered her gown about her feet that she might 
di'own with decency. It is scarcely necessary to 
say that they were saved by a vow to the Vhgin 
and St. Joseph. Vimont offered it in behalf of aU 
the company, and the ship glided into the open sea 
unharmed. 

Tliey arrived at Tadoussac on the fifteenth of 
July ; and the nuns ascended to Quebec in a small 
craft deeply laden with salted codfish, on which, 
uncooked, they subsisted until the first of August, 
when they reached their destination. Cannon 
roared welcome from the fort and batteries ; all 
labor ceased ; the storehouses were closed ; and 
the zealous Montmagny, with a train of priests and 
soldiers, met the new-comers at the landing. All 
the nuns fell prostrate, and kissed the sacred soil 
of Canada.^ They heard mass at the church, 
dined at the fort, and presently set forth to visit 
the new settlement of Sillery, four miles above 
Quebec. 

Noel Brulart de Sillery, a Knight of Malta, who 
had once filled the highest offices under the Queen 
Marie de Medicis, had now severed his connection 

1 Juchereau, 14 ; Le Clerc, II. 33 ; Ragueneau, Vie de Catherine de St. 
Augustin, " Epistre dedicatoire ; " Le Jeune, Relation, 1639, Chap. II. ; 
Charlevoix, Vie de Marie de V Incarnation, 264 ; " Acte de Reception," ii> 
Les Ursulines de Quebec, I. 21. 



1639.] BRULART BE SILLERY. 183 

with his Order, renounced the world, and become a 
priest. He devoted his vast revenues — for a dis- 
pensation of the Pope had freed him from his vow 
of poverty — to the founding of reUgious establish- 
ments.^ Among other endowments, he had placed 
an ample fund in the hands of the Jesuits for the 
formation of a settlement of Christian Indians at 
the spot which still bears his name. On the strand 
of Sillery, between the river and the woody heights 
behind, were clustered the small log-cabins of a 
number of Algonquin converts, together with a 
church, a mission-house, and an infirmary, — the 
whole surrounded by a palisade. It was to this 
place that the six nuns were now conducted by 
the Jesuits. The scene delighted and edified them ; 
and, in the transports of their zeal, they seized and 
kissed every female Indian child on whom they 
could lay hands, " without minding," says Father 
Le Jeune, " whether they were dirty or not." 
" Love and charity," he adds, " triumphed over 
every human consideration." ^ 

The nuns of the Hotel-Dieu soon after took up 
their abode at Sillery, whence they removed to 
a house built for them at Quebec by their found- 
ress, the Duchesse d'Aiguillon. The Ursulines, v 
in the absence of better quarters, were lodged at 
first in a small wooden tenement under the rock of 

1 See Vie de Vlllustre Serviteur de Dieu Noel BruJart de Sillery; also 
Etudes et RechercJies Biographiques sur le Chevalier Noel Brulart de Sillery ; 
and several documents in Martin's translation of Bressani, Appendix IV. 

2 " . . . sans prendre garde si ces petits enfans sauvages estoient sales 
ou non ; ... la loy d'aniour et de charite I'emportoit par dessus toutes 
les considerations humaines." — Relation, 1639, 26 (Cramoisy). 



184 DEVOTEES AND NUNS. [1639-42, 

Quebec, at the brink of the river. Here they WQre 
soon beset with such a host of children, that the 
floor of their wretched tenement was covered with 
beds, and their toil had no respite. Then came 
the small-pox, (Carrying death and terror among the 
neighboring Indians. These thronged to Quebec 
in misery and desperation, begging succor from the 
French. The labors both of the Ursulmes and 
of the hospital nuns were prodigious. In the in- 
fected air of thek' miserable hovels, where sick and 
dying savages covered the floor, and were packed 
one above another in berths, — amid all that is 
most distressing and most revolting, with little food 
and less sleep, these women passed the rough be- 
ginning of their new life. Several of them fell ill. 
But the excess of the evil at length brought relief; 
for so many of the Indians died in these pest-houses 
that the survivors shunned them in horror. 

But how did these women bear themselves amid 
toils so arduous? A pleasant record has come 
down to us of one of them, — that fak and deh- 
cate girl, Marie de St. Bernard, called, in the con- 
vent. Sister St. Joseph, who had been chosen at 
Tours as the companion of Marie de ITncarnation. 
Another Ursulme, writing at a period when the 
severity of their labors was somewhat relaxed, 
says, " Her disposition is charming. In our times 
of recreation, she often makes us cry with laugh- 
ing : it would be hard to be melancholy when she 
is near."^ 

1 Letlre de la Mere S'^ Claire a une de ses Soeurs Ursulines de Paris. 
Quebec, 2 Sept., 1640. — See Les Ursulines de Que'bec, I. 38. 



1630-42.] THE SUPERIOR OF THE URSULINES. 185 

It was three years later before the Ursulmes and 
their pupils took possession of a massive convent 
of stone, built for them on the site which they still 
occupy. Money had failed before the work was 
done, and the interior was as unfinished as a bain.^ 
Beside the cloister stood a large ash-tree ; and it 
stands there still. Beneath its shade, says the 
convent tradition, Marie de I'lncarnation and her 
nuns instructed the Indian children in the truths 
of salvation ; but it might seem rash to affirm that 
their teachings were always either wise or useful, 
since Father Vimont tells us approvingly, that they 
reared their pupils in so chaste a horror of the 
other sex, that a little girl, whom a man had play- 
fully taken by the hand, ran crying to a bowl of 
water to wash off the unhallowed influence.^ 

Now and henceforward one figure stands nobly 
conspicuous in this devoted sisterhood. Marie de 
I'lncarnation, no longer lost in the vagaries of an 
insane mysticism, but engaged in the duties of 
Christian charity and the responsibilities of an 
arduous post, displays an ability, a fortitude, and 
an earnestness which command respect and admi- 
ration. Her mental intoxication had ceased, or 
recurred only at intervals; and false excitements 
no longer sustained her. She was racked with 
constant anxieties about her son, and was often in 



1 The interior was finished after a year or two, with cells as usual, 
There were four chimneys, with fireplaces burning a hundred and sev- 
enty-five cords of wood in a winter; and though the nuns were boxed 
up in beds which closed like chests, Marie de I'lncarnation complains 
bitterly of the cold. See her letter of Aug. 26, 1644. 

2 Yimont, Relation, 1642, 112 (Cramoisy). 

16* 



186 DEVOTEES AND NUNS. [1639-42. 

a condition described by her biographers as a " de- 
privation of all spiritual consolations." Her posi- 
tion was a very difficult one. She herself speaks 
of her life as a succession of crosses and humilia- 
tions. Some of these were due to Madame de la 
Peltrie, who, in a freak of enthusiasm, abandoned 
her Ursulines for a time, as we shall presently see, 
leaving them in the utmost destitution. There were 
dissensions to be healed among them ; and money, 
everything, in short, to be provided. Marie de 
rincarnation, in her saddest moments, neither 
failed in judgment nor slackened in effort. She 
carried on a vast correspondence, embracing every 
one in France who could aid her infant commu- 
nity with money or influence ; she harmonized and 
regulated it with excellent skill ; and, in the midst 
of relentless austerities, she was loved as a mother 
by her pupils and dependants. Catholic writers 
extol her as a saint. ^ Protestants may see in her a 
Christian heroine, admirable, with all her follies 
and her faults. 

The traditions of the Ursulines are full of the 
•vdrtues of Madame de la Peltrie, — her humility, 
her charity, her penances, and her acts of mortifi- 
cation. No doubt, with some little allowance, these 

1 Tliere is a letter extant from Sister Anne de S'« Claire, an Ursuline 
who came to Quebec in 1640, written soon after her arrival, and contain- 
ing curious evidence that a reputation of saintship already attached to 
Marie de rincarnation. "When I spoke to her," writes Sister Anne, 
speaking of lier first interview, " I perceived in the air a certain odor of 
sanctity, which gave nie the sensation of an agreeable perfume." See 
the letter in a recent Catholic work, Les Ursulines de Quebec, I. 38, where 
the passage is printed in Italics, as worthy the especial attention of the 
pious readej". 



I 



1G42-52.] FOUNDEESS OF THE URSULINES. 187 

traditions are true; but there is more of reason 
than of imcharitableness in the belief, that her zeal 
would have been less ardent and sustained, if it 
had had fewer spectators. She was now fairly 
committed to the conventual life, her enthusiasm 
was kept within prescribed bounds, and she was no 
longer mistress of her own movements. On the 
one hand, she was anxious to accumulate merits 
against the Day of Judgment ; and, on the other, 
she had a keen appreciation of the applause which 
the sacrifice of her fortune knd her acts of piety 
had gained for her. Mortal vanity takes many 
shapes. Sometimes it arrays itself in silk and 
jewels; sometimes it walks in sackcloth, and speaks 
the language of self-abasement. In the convent, 
as in the world, the fair devotee thhsted for admi- 
ration. The halo of saintship glittered in her eyes 
like a diamond crown, and she aspired to outshine 
her sisters in humility. She was as sincere as 
Simeon Stylites on his column ; and, like him, found 
encouragement and comfort in the gazing and 
wondering eyes below.^ 

1 Madame de la P^Jtrie died in her convent in 1671. Marie de I'ln- 
carnation died the ^oUowing year. She had the consolation of knowing 
tliat her son had liilfiiJ^d hex ardent wishes, and become a priest. 



CHAPTER XV. 

1636-1642. 
VILLEMARIE DE MONTREAL. 

DAUVERSli:RE AND THE VoiCE FROM HeAVEN. AbBE OlIER. — 

Their Schemes. — The Society of Notre-Damb db Mont- 
real. — Maisonneuve. — Devout Ladies. — Mademoiselle 
Mange. — Marguerite Bourgeois. — The Montrealists at 
Quebec. — Jealousy. — Quarrels. — Eomance and Devotion, 
— Embarkation. — Foundation of Montreal. 

We come now to an enterprise as singular in its 
character as it proved important in its results. 

At La Fleche, in Anjou, dwelt one Jerome le 
E-oyer de la Dauversiere, receiver of taxes. His 
portrait shows us a round, bourgeois face, some- 
what heavy perhaps, decorated with a slight mous- 
tache, and redeemed by bright and earnest eyes. 
On his head he wears a black skull-cap ; and 
over his ample shoulders spreads a stiff white 
collar, of wide expanse and studious plainness. 
Though he belonged to the noblesse, his look is 
that of a grave burgher, of good renown and sage 
deportment. Dauversiere was, however, an enthu- 
siastic devotee, of mystical tendencies, v^^ho wliip- 
ped himself with a scourge of small chains till his 
shoulders were one wound, wore a belt with more 

[1881 



1636.] JEAN JACQUES OLIEK. 189 

than twelve hundred sharp points, and invented for 
himself other torments, which filled his confessor 
with admiration.^ One day, while at his devotions, 
he heard an inward voice commanding him to he- 
come the founder of a new Order of hospital nuns ; 
and he was further ordered to establish, on the 
island called Montreal, in Canada, a hospital, or 
Hotel-Dieu, to be conducted by these nuns. But 
Montreal was a wilderness, and the hospital would 
have no patients. Therefore, in order to supply 
them, the island must first be colonized. Dauver- 
siere was greatly perplexed. On the one hand, 
the voice of Heaven must be obeyed ; on the other, 
he had a wife, six children, and a very moderate 
fortune.^ 

Again : there was at Paris a young priest, about 
twenty-eight years of age, — Jean Jacques Olier, 
afterwards widely known as founder of the Semi- 
nary of St. Sulpice. Judged by his engraved por- 
trait, his countenance, though marked both with 
energy and intellect, was anything but prepossess- 
ing. Every lineament proclaims the priest. Yet 
the Abbe Olier has high titles to esteem. He 
signalized his piety, it is true, by the most dis- 
gusting exploits of self-mortification ; but, at the 
same time, he w^as strenuous in his efforts to re- 
form the people and the clergy. So zealous was 
he for good morals, that he drew upon himself the 
imputation of a leaning to the heresy of the Jan- 

1 Fancamp in Faillon, Vie de M^^^ Mance. Introduction. 

2 Faillon, Vie de il/"« Mance, Introduction; DoUier de Casson, Hist, 
de Montreal, MS. ; Les Ve'ritables Motifs des Messieurs et Dames de Montreal, 
25; Juchereau, 33. 



190 VILLEMARIE DE MONTREAL. [1636, 

senists,' — a suspicion strengthened by his opposi- 
tion to certain priests, who, to secure the faithful 
in their allegiance, justified them in lives of licen- 
tiousness.^ Yet Olier's catholicity was past attaint- 
ment, and in his horror of Jansenists he yielded to 
the Jesuits alone. 

He was praying in the ancient church of St. 
Germain des Pres, when, like Dauversiere, he 
thought he heard a voice from Heaven, saying that 
he was destined to be a light to the Gentiles. It 
is recorded as a mystic coincidence attending this 
miracle, that the choir was at that very time 
chanting the words. Lumen ad revelationem Gen- 
tium ;^ and it seems to have occurred neither to 
Olier nor to his biographer, that, falling on the ear 
of the rapt worshipper, they might have uncon- 
sciously suggested the supposed revelation. But 
there was a further miracle. An inward voice told 
Olier that he was to form a society of priests, and 
establish them on the island called Montreal, in 
Canada, for the propagation of the True Faith ; 
and writers old and recent assert, that, while both 
he and Dauversiere were totally ignorant of Ca- 
nadian geography, they suddenly found themselves 
in possession, they knew not how, of the most 
exact details concerning Montreal, its size, shape, 
situation, soil, climate, and productions. 

The annual volumes of the Jesuit Melations, 
issuing from the renowned press of Cramoisy, were 

1 Faillon, Vie de M. Olier, II. 188. ♦ 

2 Me'moires Autographes de M. Olier, cited by Faillon, in Histoire de la 
Colonie Fran^aise, I. 384. 



1636-40.] VISIONS.— PRODIGIES. 191 

at this time spread broadcast throughout France , 
and, in the circles of haute devotion, Canada and 
its missions were everywhere the themes of enthu- 
siastic discussion ; while Champlain, in his pub- 
lished works, had long before pointed out Montreal 
as the proper site for a settlement. But we are 
entering a region of miracle, and it is superfluous 
to look far for explanations. . The illusion, in these 
cases, is a part of the history. 

Dauversiere pondered the revelation he had re- 
ceived; and the more he pondered, the more was 
he convinced that it came from God. He there- 
fore set out for Paris, to find some means of ac 
complishing the task assigned him. Here, as he 
prayed before an image of the Virgin in the church 
of Notre-Dame, he fell into an ecstasy, and beheld 
a vision. " I should be false to the integrity of 
history," writes his biographer, " if I did not relate 
it here." And he adds, that the reality of this 
celestial favor is past doubting, inasmuch as Dau- 
versiere himself told it to his daughters. Christ, 
the Virgin, and St. Joseph appeared before him. 
He saw them distinctly. Then he heard Christ 
ask three times of his Vu-gin Mother, Where can 
I find a faithful servant? On which, the Virgin, 
taking him (Dauversiere) by the hand, replied, See^ 
Lord, here is that faithfid servant ! — and Christj 
with a benignant smile, received him into his ser- 
vice, promising to bestow on him wisdom and 
strength to do his work.^ From Paris he went i(^ 

^ Faillon, Vie de M^^' Mance, Litroduction, xxviii. The Abbe Eer 
land, in his Hhtoire du Canada, passes over the mhacles in silence. 



192 VILLEMARIE DE MONTREAL. [1G40. 

the neighboring chateau of Meudon, which over 
looks the valley of the Seine, not far from St, 
Cloud. Entering the gallery of the old castle,. 
he saw a priest approaching him. It was Olier. 
Now we are told that neither of these men had 
ever seen or heard of the other ; and yet, says the 
pious historian, " impelled by a kind of insphation, 
they knew each other at once, even to the depths 
of their hearts; saluted each other by name, as 
we read of St. Paul, the Hermit, and St. Anthony, 
and of St. Dominic and St. Francis; and ran to 
embrace each other, like two friends who had met 
after a long separation." ^ 

" Monsieur," exclaimed Olier, " I know your 
design, and I go to commend it to God at the 
holy altar." 

And he went at once to say mass in the chapel. 
Dauversiere received the communion at his hands ; 
and then they walked for three hours in the park, 
discussing theh plans. They were of one mind, 
in respect both to objects and means ; and when 
they parted, Olier gave Dauversiere a hundred 
louis, saying, " This is to begin the work of God." 

They proposed to found at Montreal three relig- 
ious communities, — three being the mystic number, 
— one of secular priests to direct the colonists and 
convert the Indians, one of nuns to nurse the sick, 
and one of nuns to teach the Faith to the children, 
white and red. To borrow then- own phrases, 
they would plant the banner of Christ in an abode 
of desolation and a haunt of demons ; and to this 

1 Ibid., La Colonic Franqaise, I. 390. 



1G40.] NOTRE-DAME DE MONTEEAL. 193 

end a band of priests and women were to invade 
the wilderness, and take post between the fangs of 
the Iroquois. But first they must make a colony, 
and to do so must raise money. Olier had pious 
and wealthy .penitents ; Dauversiere had a friend, 
the Baron de Fancamp, devout as himself and far 
richer. Anxious for his soul, and satisfied that 
the enterprise was an inspiration of God, he was 
eager to bear part in it. Olier soon found three 
othefrs ; and the six together formed the germ of 
the Society of Notre-Dame de Montreal. Among 
them they raised the sum of seventy-five thousand 
livres, equivalent to about as many dollars at the 
present day.^ 

Now to look for a moment at their plan. Their 
eulogists say, and with perfect truth, that, from a 
worldly point of view, it was mere folly. The 
partners mutually bound themselves to seek no 

1 DoUier de Casson, Histoire de Montreal, MS. ; also Belmont, Histoire 
du Canada, 2. Juchereau doubles the sum. Eaillon agrees with Dollier. 

On all that relates to the early annals of Montreal a flood of new light 
has been thrown by the Abbe Faillon. As a priest of St. Sulpice, he had 
ready access to the archives of the Seminaries of Montreal and Paris, and 
to numerous otlier ecclesiastical depositories, which would have been 
closed hopelessly against a layman and a heretic. It is impossible to 
commend too highly the zeal, diligence, exactness, and extent of his con- 
scientious researclies. His credulity is enormous, and he is completely 
in sympathy with the supernaturalists of whom he writes : in other 
words, he identifies himself with his theme, and is indeed a fragment of 
the seventeenth century, still extant in tlie nineteenth. He is minute to 
prolixity, and abounds in extracts and citations from the ancient manu- 
scripts wliich his labors have unearthed. In short, the Abbe is a prodigy 
of patience and industry ; and if he taxes the patience of his readers, he 
also rewards it abundantly. Such of his original authorities as have 
proved accessible are before me, including a considerable number of 
manuscripts. Among these, that of Dollier de Casson, Histoire de Mont' 
real, as cited above, is the most important. The copy in my possession 
was made from the original in the Mazarin Library. 

17 



194 VILLEMARIE DE MONTREAL. [1640. 

return for the money expended. Their pjofit was 
to be reaped in the skies : and, indeed, there was 
none to be reaped on earth. The feeble settlement 
at Quebec was at this time in danger of utter ruin ; 
for the Iroquois, enraged at tlie attacks made on 
them by Champlain, had begun a fearful course of 
retaliation, and the very existence of the colony 
trembled in the balance. But if Quebec was ex- 
posed to their ferocious inroads, Montreal was in- 
comparably more so. A settlement here Avould 
be a perilous outjDost, — a hand thrust into the 
jaws of the tiger. It would provoke attack, and 
lie almost in the path of the war-parties. The 
associates could gain nothing by the fur-trade ; for 
they would not be allowed to share in it. On the 
other hand, danger apart, the place was an excel- 
lent one for a mission ; for here met two great 
rivers : the St. LaAvrence, with its countless tribu- 
taries, flowed in from the west, while the Ottawa 
descended from the north; and Montreal, embraced 
by their uniting waters, was the key to a vast in- 
land navigation. Thither the Indians would nat- 
urally resort ; and thence the missionaries could 
make their way into the heart of a boundless 
heathendom. None of the ordinary motives of 
colonization had part in this design. It owed its 
conception and its birth to religious zeal alone. 

The island of Montreal belonged to Lauson, for- 
mer president of the great company of the Hun- 
di-ed Associates ; and, as we have seen, his son 
had a monopoly of fishing in the St. Lawrence. 
Dauversiere and Fancamp, after much diplomacy. 



1640.] CONDITIONS. 195 

succeeded in persuading the elder Lauson to trans- 
fer his title to them ; and, as there was a defect in 
it, they also obtained a grant of the island from 
the Hundred Associates, its original owners, who^ 
however, reserved to themselves its western ex- 
tremity as a site for a fort and storehouses.^ At 
the same time, the younger Lauson granted them 
a right of fishery within two leagues of the shores 
of the island, for which they were to make a yearly 
acknowledgment of ten pounds of fish. A con- 
firmation of these grants was obtained from the 
Knig. Dauversiere and his companions were now 
seigneurs of Montreal. They were empowered to 
appoint a governor, and to establish courts, from 
which there was to be an appeal to the Supreme 
Court of Quebec, supposing such to exist. They 
were excluded from the fur-trade, and forbidden 
to build castles or forts other than such as were 
necessary for defence against the Indians. 

Their title assured, they matured their plan. 
First they would send out forty men to take pos- 
session of Montreal, intrench themselves, and raise 
crops. Then they would build a house for the 

1 Donation et Transport de la Concession de I'lsle de Montreal par M. 
Jean de Lauzon aux Sieurs Chevrier de Fouancant (Fancamp) et le Royer de 
la Dover siere, MS. 

Concession d'une Partie de I'Isle de Montreal accordee par la Compagnie de 
la Nouvelle France aux Slews Chevrier et le Royer, MS. 

Lettres de Ratification, MS. 

Acle qui pronve que les Sieurs Chevrier de Fancamps et Royer de la Dau- 
versiere n'ont stipule qu'au nam de la Compagnie de Montreal, MS. 

From copies of other documents before me, it appears that in 1659 
the reserved portion of the island was also ceded to the Company of • 
Montreal 

See also Edits, Ordonnances Royaux, etc., I. 20-26 (Quebec, 185i). 



190 VILLPMAEIE DE MONTREAL. [1640. 

priests, and two convents for the nnns. Meanwhile, 
Olier was toiling at Vanghard, on the outskirts of 
Paris, to inaugurate the seminary of priests, and 
Dauvcrsiere at La Fleche, to form the community 
of hospital nuns. How the school nuns were 
provided for we shall see hereafter. The colony, 
it will be observed, was for the convents, not the 
convents for the colony. 

The Associates needed a soldier-governor to take 
charge of their forty men ; and, directed as they 
supposed by Providence, they found one wholly to 
their mind. This was Paul de Chomedey, Sieur 
de Maisonneuve, a devout and valiant gentleman, 
who in long service among the heretics of Holland 
had kept his faith intact, and had held himself 
resolutely aloof from the license that surrounded 
him. He loved his profession of arms, and wished 
to consecrate his sword to the Church. Past all 
comparison, he is the manliest figure that appears 
in this group of zealots. The piety of the design, 
the mhacles that inspked it, the adventure and the 
peril, all combined to charm him; and he eagerly 
embraced the enterprise. Plis father opposed his 
purpose ; but he met him with a text of St. Mark, 
" There is no man that hath left house or brethren 
or sisters or father for my sake, but he shall receive 
an hundred-fold." On this the elder Maisonneuve, 
deceived by his own worldliness, imagined that the 
plan covered some hidden speculation, from which 
.enormous profits were expected, and therefore with- 
drew his opposition.^ 

1 Faillon, La Colonie Franqaise, I. 409. 



1G40.] DAUVERSLERE'S DOUBTS. 19T 

Their scheme was ripening fast, when both Olier 
and Dauversiere were assailed by one of those 
revulsions of spirit, to which saints of the ecstatic 
school are naturally liable. Dauversiere, in par- 
ticular, was a prey to the extremity of dejection, 
uncertainty, and misgiving. What had he, a fam- 
ily man, to do with ventures beyond sea"? Was it 
not his first duty to support his wife and children ? 
Could he not fulfil all his obligations as a Christian 
by reclaiming the wicked and relieving the poor at 
La Fleche 1 Plainly, he had doubts that his voca- 
tion was genuine. If we could raise the curtain of 
his domestic life, perhaps we should find him beset 
by wife and daughters, tearful and wrathful, in- 
veighing against his folly, and imploring him to 
provide a support for them before squandering his 
money to plant a convent of nuns in a wilderness. 
How long his fit of dejection lasted does not ap- 
pear; but at length^ he set himself again to his 
appointed work. Olier, too, emerging from the 
clouds and darkness, found faith once more, and 
again placed himself at the head of the great enter- 
prise.^ 

There was imperative need of more money ; and 
Dauversiere, under judicious guidance, was active 
in obtainmg it. This miserable victim of illusions 
had a squat, unoourtly figure, and was 'no proficient 
in the graces either of manners or of speech : hence 
his success in commending his objects to persons 

^ raillon, Vie de ili""« Mance, Introduction, xxxv. 

2 Eaillon { Vie de M. Olier) devotes twenty-one pages to the history 
of his fit of nervous depression. 

17* 



198 VILLEMARIE DE MONTREAL. [1640. 

of rank and wealth is set down as one of the many 
mu'acles which attended the birth of Montreal. 
But zeal and earnestness are in themselves a pow- 
er ; and the ground had been well marked out and 
ploughed for him in advance. That attractive, 
though mtricate, subject of study, the female mind, 
has always engaged the attention of priests, more 
especially m countries where, as in France, women 
exert a strong social and pohtical influence. The 
art of kindling the flames of zeal, and the more 
difficult art of dhecting and controlling them, have 
been themes of reflection the most diligent and 
profound. Accordingly we find that a large pro- 
portion of the money raised for this enterprise was 
contributed by devout ladies. Many of them be- 
came members of the Association of Montreal, 
which was eventually increased to about forty-five 
persons, chosen for their devotion and their wealth. 

Olier and his associates had resolved, though not 
from any collapse of zeal, to postpone the estab- 
lishment of the seminary and the college until 
after a settlement should be formed. The hospi- 
tal, however, might, they thought, be begun at 
once ; for blood and blows would be the assured 
portion of the fh-st settlers. At least, a discreet 
woman ought to embark with the first colonists as 
their nurse and housekeeper. Scarcely was the 
need recognized when it was supplied. 

Mademoiselle Jeanne Mance was born of an 
honorable family of Nogent-le-E,oi, and in 1640 
was thirty-four years of age. These Canadian 
heroines began their religious experiences early. 



1640.J MADEMOISELLE MANGE. 199 

Of Marie de ITncarnation we read, that at the age 
of seven Christ appeared to her in a vision ; ^ and 
the biographer of Mademoiselle Mance assures us, 
with admuing gravity, that, at the same tender 
age, she bound herself to God by a vow of per- 
petual chastity.^ This singular infant in due time 
became a woman, of a delicate constitution, and 
manners graceful, yet dignified. Though an ear- 
nest devotee, she felt no vocation for the cloister; 
yet, while still " in the world," she led the life of a 
nun. The Jesuit Relations, and the example of 
Madame de la Peltrie, of whom she had heard, 
inoculated her with the Canadian enthusiasm, then 
so prevalent ; and, under the pretence of visiting 
relatives, she made a journey to Paris, to take 
counsel of certain priests. Of one thing she was 
assured : the Divine will called her to Canada, 
but to what end she neither knew nor asked to 
know ; for she abandoned herself as an atom to be 
borne to unkno^vn destinies on the breath of God. 
At Paris, Father St. -Jure, a Jesuit, assured her 
that her vocation to Canada was, past doubt, a 
call from Heaven ; while Father Rapin, a RecoUet, 
spread abroad the fame of her virtues, and intro- 
duced her to many ladies of rank, wealth, and 
zeal. Then, well supplied with money for any 
pious work to which she might be summoned, 
she journeyed to Rochelle, whence ships were to 
sail for New France. Thus far she had been kept 
in ignorance of the plan with regard to Montreal ; 

1 Casgrain, Vie de Marie de I'Incarnation, 78 

2 FaiUon, Vie de il/«« Mance, I. 3. 



200 



VILLEMARIE DE MONTREAL. 



[1641. 



but now Father La Place, a Jesuit, revealed it 
to he]'. On the day after her arrival at Kochelle, 
as she entered the Church of the Jesuits, she 
met Daiiversiere coming out. "Then," says her 
biographer, "these two persons, who had never 
seen nor heard of each other, were enlightened su- 
pernaturally, whereby theh most hidden thoughts 
were mutually made known, as had happened 
already with M. Olier and this same M. de la 
Dauversiere." ^ A long conversation ensued be- 
tween them ; and the delights of this interview 
were never effaced from the mind of Mademoiselle 
Mauce. " She used to speak of it like a seraph," 
writes one of her nuns, " and far better than many 
a learned doctor could have done." ^ 

She had found her destiny. The ocean, the 
wilderness, the solitude, the Iroquois, — nothing 
daunted her. She would go to Montreal with 
Maisonneuve and his forty men. Yet, when the 
vessel was about to sail, a new and sharp misgiving 
seized her. How could she, a woman, not yet 
bereft of youth or charms, live alone in the forest, 
among a troop of soldiers? Her scruples were 
relieved by two of the men, who, at the last 
moment, refused to embark without their wives, — 
and by a young wom.an, who, impelled by enthu- 
siasm, escaped from her friends, and took passage, 
in spite of them, in one of the vessels. 



1 Eaillon, Vie de Jf "« Mance, I. 18. Here again the Abbe Ferland, 
with his usual good sense, tacitly rejects the supernaturalism. 

2 La Soeur Morin, Amides des Hospitalieres de Villemarie, MS., cited by 
Faillon. 



1642.] MARGUEKITE BOURGEOYS. 201 

All was ready ; the ships set sail ; hut Oiler, 
Dauversiere, and Fancamp remained at home, as 
did also the other Associates, with the exception 
of Maisonneuve and Mademoiselle Mance. In the 
following February, an impressive scene took place 
in the Church of Notre Dame, at Paris. The As- 
sociates, at this time numbering about forty-five,^ 
with Olier at their head, assembled before the altar 
of the Virgin, and, by a solemn ceremonial, conse- 
crated Montreal to the Holy Family. Henceforth 
it was to be called Villemarie de Montreal^ — a 
sacred town, reared to the honor and under the 
patronage of Christ, St. Joseph, and the Virgin, to 
be typified by three persons on earth, founders 
respectively of the three destined communities, — 
Olier, Dauversiere, and a maiden of Troyes, Mar- 
guerite Bourgeoys : the seminary to be consecrated 
to Christ, the Hotel-Dieu to St. Joseph, and the 
college to the Virgin. 

But we are anticipating a little ; for it was sev- 
eral years as yet before Marguerite Bourgeoys took 
an active part in the work of Montreal. She was 
the daughter of a respectable tradesman, and was 
now twenty-two years of age. Her portrait has 
come down to us ; and her face is a mirror of 
frankness, loyalty, and womanly tenderness. Her 
qualities were those of good sense, conscientious- 
ness, and a warm heart. She had known no mka- 
cles, ecstasies, or trances ; and though afterwards, 

1 Dollier de Casson, A.D. 1641-42, MS. Vimont says thirty five. 

2 Vimont, Relation, 1642, 37. Compare Le Clerc, Etahlissement de h 
Foy, II. 49. 



202 VILLEMARIE DE MONTREAL. [1641 

when her religious susceptibilities had reached a 
fuller development, a few such are recorded of her, 
yet even the Abbe Faillon, with the best intentions, 
can credit her with but a meagre allowance of 
these celestial favors. Though in the midst of 
visionaries, she distrusted the supernatural, and 
avowed her belief, that, in His government of the 
world, God does not often set aside its ordinary 
laws. Her religion was of the affections, and was 
manifested in an absorbing devotion to duty. She 
had felt no vocation to the cloister, but had taken 
the vow of chastity, and was attached, as an ex- 
terne, to the Sisters of the Congregation of Troyes, 
Avho were fevered with eagerness to go to Canada. 
Marguerite, however, was content to wait until 
there was a prosj^ect that she could do good by 
going; and it was not till the year 1653, that, 
renouncing an inheritance, and giving all she had 
to the poor, she embarked for the savage scene of 
her labors. To this day, in crowded school-rooms 
of Montreal and Quebec, fit monuments of her 
unobtrusive virtue, her successors instruct the chil- 
dren of the poor, and embalm the pleasant memory 
of Marguerite Bourgeoys. In the martial figure of 
Maisonneuve, and the fair form of this gentle nun, 
we find the true heroes of Montreal.^ 

Maisonneuve, wath his forty men and four women, 
reached Quebec too late to ascend to Montreal that 
season. They encountered distrust, jealousy, and 
opposition. The agents of the Company of the 
Hundred Associates looked on them askance ; and 

1 For Marguerite Bourgeoys, see her life by Faillon 



1642.] M. PUISEAUX. 203 

the Governor of Quebec, Montmagny, saw a rival 
governor in Maisonneuve. Every means was used 
to persuade the adventurers to abandon their pro- 
ject, and settle at Quebec. Montmagny called a 
council of the principal persons of his colony, who 
gave it as their opinion that the new-comers had 
better exchange Montreal for the Island of Orleans, 
where they would be in a position to give and 
receive succor ; while, by persisting in their first 
design, they would expose themselves to destruc- 
tion, and be of use to nobody.^ Maisonneuve, who 
was present, expressed his surprise that they should 
assume to direct his affairs. " I have not come 
here," he said, " to deliberate, but to act. It is my 
duty and my honor to found a colony at Montreal ; 
and I would go, if every tree were an Iroquois ! " ^ 
At Quebec there was little ability and no incli- 
nation to shelter the new colonists for the winter ; 
and they would have fared ill, but for the generos- 
ity of M. Puiseaux, who lived not far distant, at a 
place called St. Michel. This devout and most 
hospitable person made room for them all in his 
rough, but capacious dwelling. Their neighbors 
were the hospital nuns, then living at the mission 
of Sillery, in a substantial, but comfortless house of 
stone ; where, amidst destitution, sickness, and ir- 
repressible disgust at the filth of the savages whom 
they had in charge, they were laboring day and 
night with devoted assiduity.. Among the minor 

1 Juchereau, 32 ; Faillon, Colonie Frangaise. I. 423. 

2 La Tour, Memoire de Laval, Liv VIII; Belmont, Histoire du, Co- 
ruda, 3. 



204 VILLEMARIE DE MDNTREAL. [1642. 

ills which beset them were the eccentricities of one 
of their lay sisters, crazed with religious enthusiasm, 
who had the care of their poultry and domestic 
animals, of which she was accustomed to inquire, 
one by one, if they loved God ; when, not receiv- 
ing an immediate answer in the affirmative, she 
w^ould instantly put them to death, telling them 
that their impiety deserved no better fate.^ 

At St. Michel, Maisonneuve employed his men 
in building boats to ascend to INIontreal, and in 
various other labors for the behoof of the future 
colony. Thus the winter wore away; but, as ce- 
lestial minds are not exempt from ire, Montmagny 
and Maisonneuve fell into a quarrel. The twenty- 
fifth of January was Maisonneuve's fete day ; and, 
as he was greatly beloved by his followers, they 
resolved to celebrate the occasion. Accordingly, 
an hour and a half before daylight, they made a 
general discharge of their muskets and cannon. 
The sound reached Quebec, two or three miles 
distant, startling the Governor from his morning 
slumbers ; and his indignation was redoubled when 
he heard it again at night : for Maisonneuve, 
pleased at the attachment of his men, had feasted 
them and warmed their hearts with a distribution 
of wine. Montmagny, jealous of his authority, 
resented these demonstrations as an infraction of 
it, affirming that they had no right to ffi-e their 



1 Juchereau, 45. A great mortification to these excellent nuns was 
the impossibility of keeping their white dresses clean among their Indian 
patients, so that they were forced to dye them with butternut juice. They 
were the Hospitalieres who had come ovei ".n 1639. 



1642.] BIAISONNEUVE AND HIS MEN. 205 

pieces without his consent ; and, arresting the prin- 
cipal offender, one Jean Gory, he put him in irons. 
On being released, a feAV days after, his companions 
welcomed him with great rejoicing, and Maison- 
neuve gave them all a feast. He himself came in 
during the festivity, drank the health of the com- 
pany, shook hands with the late prisoner, placed 
him at the head of the table, and addressed him as 
follows : — 

" Jean Gory, you have been put in irons for 
me : you had the pain, and I the affront. For that, 
I add ten crowns to your wages." Then, turning 
to the others : " My boys," he said, " though Jean 
Gory has been misused, you must not lose heart for 
that, but drink, all of you, to the health of the man 
in irons. When we are once at Montreal, we shall 
be our own masters, and can fire our cannon when 
we please."-^ 

Montmagny was wroth when this was reported 
to him; and, on the ground that what had passed 
was " contrary to the service of the King and the 
authority of the Governor," he summoned Gory 
and six others before him, and put them separately 
under oath. Their evidence failed to establish 
a case against their commander; but thenceforth 
there was great coldness between the powers of 
Quebec and Montreal. 

Early in May, Maisonneuve and his followers 
embarked. They had gained an unexpected recruit 

1 Documents Divers, MSS., now or lately in possession of G. B. Fari- 
bault, Esq. ; Feiland, Notes sur les Registres de N. D. de Quebec, 25; Fail- 
Ion, La Colonie Franqaise, I. 433. 

18 



206 VILLEMARIE DE MONTREAL. [1642. 

during the winter, in the person of Madame de la 
Peltrie. The piety, the novelty, and the romance 
of theh enterprise, all had their charms for the fair 
enthusiast ; and an u-resistible impulse — imputed 
by a slandering historian to the levity of her sex^ 
— urged her to share their fortunes. Her zeal 
was more admired by the INIontrealists whom she 
joined than by the Ursulines whom she aban- 
doned. She carried off all the furniture she had 
lent them, and left them in the utmost destitution.^ 
Nor did she remain quiet after reaching Mont- 
real, but was presently seized with a longing to 
visit the Hurons, and preach the Faith in person 
to those benighted heathen. It needed all the elo- 
quence of a Jesuit, lately returned from that most 
arduous mission, to convince her that the attempt 
would be as useless as rash.^ 

It was the eighth of May when Maisonneuve and 
his followers embarked at St. Michel ; and as the 
boats, deep-laden with men, arms, and stores, moved 
slowly on their way, the forest, with leaves just 
opening in the warmth of spring, lay on their right 
hand and on theh* left, in a flattering semblance of 
tranquillity and peace. But behind woody islets, 
in tangled thickets and damp ravines, and in the 
shade and stillness of the columned woods, lurked 
everywhere a danger and a terror. 

What shall we say of these adventurers of Mont- 



1 La Tour, M^moire de Laval, Liv. VIII. 

2 Charlevoix, Vie de Marie de I'Incarnation, 279; Casgrain, Vie de 
Marie de I'Incarnation, 333. 

3 St. Thomas, Life of Madame de la Peltrie, 98. 



1642.] ARRIVAL OF THE COLONISTS. 207 

real, — of these who bestowed their wealth, and, 
far more, of these who sacrificed their peace and 
risked their lives, on an enterprise at once so ro- 
mantic and so devout 1 Surrounded as they were 
with illusions, false lights, and false shadows, — 
breathing an atmosphere of miracle, — compassed 
about with angels and devils, — urged with stimu- 
lants most powerful, though unreal, — their minds 
drugged, as it were, to preternatural excitement, — 
it is very difficult to judge of them. High merit, 
without doubt, there was in some of their num- 
ber ; but one may beg to be spared the attempt 
to measure or define it. To estimate a virtue 
involved in conditions so anomalous demands, per- 
haps, a judgment more than human. 

The Roman Church, sunk in disease and corrup- 
tion when the Reformation began, was roused by 
that fierce trumpet-blast to purge and brace herself 
anew. Unable to advance, she drew back to the 
fresher and comparatively purer life of the past ; 
and the fervors of mediaeval Christianity were re- 
newed in the sixteenth century. In many of its 
aspects, this enterprise of Montreal belonged to the 
time of the first Crusades. The spirit of Godfrey 
de Bouillon lived again in Chomedey de Maison- 
neuve ; and in Marguerite Bourgeoys was realized 
that fair ideal of Christian womanhood, a flower of 
Earth expanding in the rays of Heaven, which 
soothed with gentle influence the wildness of a 
barbarous age. 

On the seventeenth of May, 1642, Maisonneuve's 
little flotilla — a pinnace, a flat-bottomed craft moved 



208 VILLEMARIE DE MONTEEAL. [1G42. 

by sails, and two row-boats ^ — approached Mont- 
real ; and all on board raised in unison a hymn of 
praise. Montmagny was with them, to deliver the 
island, in behalf of the Company of the Hundred As- 
sociates, to Maisonneuve, representative of the As^ 
sociates of Montreal.^ And here, too, was Father 
Vimont, Superior of the missions ; for the Jesuits 
had been prudently in\ited to accept the spuitual 
charge of the young colony. On the following day, 
they glided along the green and solitary shores now 
thronged with the life of a busy city, and landed on 
the spot which Champlain, thhty-one years before, 
had chosen as the fit site of a settlement.^ It was 
a tongue or triangle of land, formed by the junc- 
tion of a rivulet with the St. Lawrence, and known 
afterwards as Point Calliere. The rivulet was 
bordered by a meadow, and beyond rose the forest 
with its vanguard of scattered trees. Early spring 
flowers were blooming in the young grass, and 
birds of varied plumage flitted among the boughs.^ 
Maisonneuve sprang ashore, and fell on his 
knees. His followers imitated his example ; and 
all joined their voices in enthusiastic songs of 
thanksgiving. Tents, baggage, arms, and stores 
were landed. An altar was raised on a pleasant 
spot near at hand; and Mademoiselle Mance, with 
Madame de la Peltrie, aided by her servant, Char- 
lotte Barre, decorated it with a taste which was the 



1 Dollier de Casson, A.D. 1G41-42, MS. 

2 Le Clerc, II. 50, 51. 

3 " Pioneers of France," 333. It was the Place Royale of Champlain. 

4 Dollier de Casson, A.D. 1641-42, MS. 



1642.] THE BIETH OF MONTREAL. 209 

admiration of the beholders.^ Now all the company 
gathered before the shrine. Here stood Vimont, 
in the rich vestments of his office. Here were 
the two ladies, with their servant ; Montmagny, no 
very willing spectator ; and Maisonneuve, a Avar- 
like figure, erect and tall, his men clustering around 
him, — soldiers, sailors, artisans, and laborers, — all 
alike soldiers at need. They kneeled in reverent 
silence as the Host was raised aloft ; and when the 
rite was over, the priest turned and addressed 
them : — 

" You are a grain of mustard-seed, that shall rise 
and grow till its branches overshadow the earth. 
You are few, but your work is the work of God. 
His smile is on you, and your children shall fill the 
land."^ 

The afternoon waned ; the sun sank behind the 
western forest, and twilight came on. Fireflies 
were twinkling over the darkened meadow. They 
caught them, tied them with threads into shining 
festoons, and hung them before the altar, where 
the Host remained exposed. Then they pitched 
their tents, lighted their bivouac fires, stationed 
their guards, and lay down to rest. Such was the 
bu'th-night of Montreal.^ 

1 Moiin, A7inales, MS., cited by Eaillon, Im. Colonie Frangaise, I. 440, 
also Dollier de Casson, A.D. 1641-42, MS. 

' Dollier de Casson, MS., as above. Vimont, in the Relation of 1642, 
p. 37, briefly mentions the ceremony. 

s Tlie Associates of Montreal published, in 1643, a thick pamphlet in 
quarto, entitled Les Veritahles Motifs de Messieurs et Dames de la Socieie de 
Notre-Dame de Montreal, pour la Conversion des Sauvarjes de la Nouvelle 
France. It was written as an answer to aspersions cast upon them, appar- 
ently by persons attached to the great Company of New France known 

18* 



210 VILLEMARIE DE MONTREAL. [1642. 

Is this true history, or a romance of Christian 
chivahy ? It is both. 

as the " Hundred Associates," and afTords a curious exposition of the 
spirit of their enterprise. It is excessively rare ; but copies of tlie essen- 
tial portions are before me. The following is a characteristic extract : — 
" Vous dites que I'entreprise de Montre'al est d'une depense infinie, 
plus convenable a un roi qu'a quelques particuliers, trop faibles pour la 
soutenir; & vous alleguez encore les pe'rils de la navigation & les nau- 
frages qui peuvent la ruiner. Vous avez mieux rencontre que vous ne 
pensiez, en disant que c'est une oeuvre de roi, puisque le Roi des rois s'en 
mele, lui a qui obeissent la mer & les vents. Nous ne craignons done pas 
les naufrages ; il n'en suscitera que lorsque nous en aurons besoin, & qu'il 
sera plus expedient pour sa gloire, que nous cherchons uniquement. Com- 
ment avez-vous pu mettre dans votre esprit qu'appuye's de nos propres 
forces, nous eussions prc'sunie de penser a un si glorieux desseiu ? Si 
Dieu n'est point dans I'affaire de Montreal, si c'est une invention huniaine, 
ne vous en mettez point en peine, elle ne durera guere. Ce que vous 
pre'disez arrivera, &. quelque chose de pire encore ; mais si Dieu I'a ainsi 
voulu, qui etes-vous pour lui contredire 1 C'etait la reflexion que le doc- 
teur Gamaliel faisait aux Juifs, en faveur des Apotres ; pour vous, qui ne 
pouvez ni croire, ni faire, laissez les autres en liberie de faire ce qu'ils 
croient que Dieu demande d'eu.x Vous assurez qu'il ne se fait plus de 
miracles ; mais qui vous I'a dit 1 oil cela est-il ecrit ? Jesus-Christ assure, 
au contraire, que cetix qui auront autant de Foi qu'un grain de senev^, feront, 
en son nom, des miracles: plus grands que ceux qu'il a faits lui-meme. Depuis 
quand utes-vous les directeurs des operations divines, pour les reduire k 
certains temps & dans la conduite ordinaire t Tant de saints mouve- 
ments, d'inspirations & de vues interieures, qu'il lui plait de donner ^ 
quelques ames dont il se sert pour I'avancement de cette ceuvre, sont des 
marques de son bon plaisir. Jusqu'-ici, il a pourvu au necessaire ; nous 
ne voulons point d'abondance, & nous esperons que sa Providence conti- 
nuera " 



CHAPTER XVI. 

1641-1644. 
ISAAC JOGUES. 

The Iroquois War. — Jogues. — His Capture. — His Jourket tu 
THE Mohawks. — Lake George. — The Mohawk Towns. — 
The Missionary Tortured. — Death of Goupil. — Misery 
OP Jogues. — The Mohawk "Babylon." — Fort Orange.— 
Escape of Jogues. — Manhattan. — The Voyage to France. 
— Jogues among his Brethren. — He returns to Canada. 

The waters of the St. Lawrence rolled through 
a virgin wilderness, where, in the vastness of the ' 
lonely woodlands, civilized man found a precarious 
harborage at three points only. — at Quebec, at 
Montreal, and at Three Rivers. Here and in the 
scattered missions was the whole of New France, 
— a population of some three hundred souls in all. 
And now, over these miserable settlements, rose a 
war-cloud of frightful portent. 

It was thirty-two years since Champlain had 
first attacked the Iroquois.^ They had nursed 
their wrath for more than a generation, and at 
length their hour was come. The Dutch traders 
at Fort Orange, now Albany, had supplied them 

1 See " Pioneers of France," 318. 

[2111 



212 ISAAC JOGUES. [1641-42. 

with fil'e-arms. The Mohawks, the most easterly 
of the Iroquois nations, had, among their seven or 
eight hundred warriors, no less than three hundred 
armed with the arquebuse, a weapon somewhat 
like the modern carbine.^ They were masters of 
the thunderbolts which, in the hands of Champlain, 
had struck terror into their hearts. 

We have surveyed in the introductory chapter 
the character and organization of this ferocious 
people ; their confederacy of five nations, bound 
together by a peculiar tie of clanship ; their chiefs, 
half hereditary, half elective ; their government, an 
oligarchy in form and a democracy in spu'it ; then- 
minds, thoroughly savage, yet marked here and 
there with traits of a vigorous development. The 
war which they had long waged with the llurons 
was carried on by the Senecas and the other West- 
ern nations of their league ; while the conduct of 
hostilities against the French and their Indian al- 
lies in Lower Canada was left to the Mohawks. 
In parties of from ten to a hundred or more, they 
would leave their towns on the Kiver Mohawk, 
descend Lake Champlain and the River Richelieu, 
lie in ambush on the banks of the St. Lawrence, 
and attack the passing boats or canoes. Some- 
times they hovered about the fortifications of Que- 
bec and Three Rivers, killing stragglers, or luring 

1 Vimont, Relation, 1643, 62. The Mohawks were the Agnie's, or 
Agneronons, of the old French writers. 

According to the Journal of New Netherland, a contemporary Dutch 
document, (see Colonial Documents of New York, I. 179,) the Dutch at Fort 
Orange had supplied the Mohawks with four hundred guns ; the profits 
of the trade, which was free to the settlers, bhnding them to the danger. 



HJ42.J HIS erra:nd. 213 

armed parties into ambuscades. They followed 
like hounds on the trail of travellers and hunters ; 
broke in upon unguarded camps at midnight ; and 
lay in wait, for days and weeks, to intercept the 
Huron traders on their yearly descent to Quebec. 
Had they joined to their ferocious courage the dis- 
( ipline and the military knowledge that belong to 
civilization, they could easily have blotted out New 
France from the map, and made the banks of the 
St. Lawrence once more a solitude ; but, though 
the most formidable of savages, they were savages 
only. 

In the early morning of the second of August, 
1642,^ twelve Huron canoes were moving slowly 
along the northern shore of the expansion of the 
St. Lawrence known as the Lake of St. Peter. 
There were on board about forty persons, includ- 
ing four Frenchmen, one of them being the Jesuit, 
Isaac Jogues, whom we have already followed on 
his missionary journey to the towns of the Tobacco 
Nation. In the interval he had not been idle. 
During the last autumn, (1641,) he, with Father 
Charles Raymbault, had passed along the shore of 
Lake Huron northward, entered the strait through 
which Lake Superior discharges itself, pushed on 
as far as the Sault Sainte Marie, and preached the 
Faith to two thousand Ojibwas, and other Algon- 
quins there assembled.^ He was now on his return 
from a far more perilous errand. The Huron mis- 
sion was in a state of destitution. There was need 

^ For the date, see Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1647, 18. 
2 Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1642, 97. 



214 ISAAC JOGUES. [1642. 

of clothing for the priests, of vessels for the altars, 
of bread and wine for the eucharist, of writing 
materials, — in short, of everything ; and, early in 
the summer of the present year, Jogues had de- 
scended to Three Rivers and Quebec with the 
Huron traders, to procure the necessary supplies. 
He had accompHshed his task, and was on his way 
back to the mission. With him were a few Huron 
converts, and among them a noted Christian chief, 
Eustache Ahatsistari. Others of the party were in 
course of instruction for baptism ; but the greater 
part were heathen, whose canoes were deeply laden 
with the proceeds of their bargains with the French 
fur-traders. 

Josrues sat in one of the leadino^ canoes. He 
was born at Orleans in 1607, and was thirty-five 
years of age. His oval face and the delicate mould 
of his features indicated a modest, thoughtful, and 
refined nature. He was constitutionally timid, with 
a sensitive conscience and great religious suscepti- 
bilities. He was a finished scholar, and might have 
gained a literary reputation ; but he had chosen an- 
other career, and one for which he seemed but ill 
fitted. Physically, however, he was well matched 
with his work ; for, though his frame was slight, 
he was so active, that none of the Indians could 
sui-pass him in running.^ 

With him were two young men, Rene Goupil 
and Guillaume Couture, donnes of the mission, — 

1 Buteux, Narre'de la Prise du Pere Jogues, MS.; M^moire touchant le 
Pere Jogues, MS. 

There is a portrait of him prefixed to Mr. Shea's admirable edition in 
quarto of Jogues's Novum Belgium, 



1642.] AMBUSCADE. 215 

that is to say, laymen who, from a religious motive 
and without pay, had attached themselves to the ser- 
vice of the Jesuits. Goupil had formerly entered 
upon the Jesuit novitiate at Paris, but failing health 
had obliged him to leave it. As soon as he was 
able, he came to Canada, offered his services to the 
Superior of the mission, was employed for a time in 
the humblest offices, and afterwards became an at- 
tendant at the hospital. At length, to his delight, 
he received permission to go up to the Hurons, 
where the sui-gical skill which he had acquired 
was greatly needed; and he was now on his way 
thither.^ His companion, Couture, was a man of 
intelligence and vigor, and of a character equally 
disinterested.^ Both were, like Jogues, in the 
foremost canoes ; while the fourth Frenchman was 
with the unconverted Hurons, in the rear. 

The twelve canoes had reached the western end 
of the Lake of St. Peter, where it is fdled with in- 
numerable islands.^ The forest was close on their 
right, they kept near the shore to avoid the current, 
and the shallow water before them was covered 
with a dense growth of tall bulrushes. Suddenly 
the silence was frightfully broken. The war-whoop 
rose from among the rushes, mingled with the 
reports of guns and the whistling of bullets ; and 
several Iroquois canoes, filled with warriors, pushed 
out from their concealment, and bore down upon 

1 Jogues, Notice sur Ren€ Goupil, 

'^ For an account of him, see Ferland, Notes sur les Registres de N. I), 
ie Quebec, 83 (1863). 

•* Buteux, Narre de la Prise du Pert Jogues, MS. This document 
leaves no doubt as to the locality. 



216 



ISAAC JOGUES. 



[1642. 



Jogues and his companions. The Hurois in the 
rear were seized with a shameful panic. They 
leaped ashore ; left canoes, baggage, and weapons ; 
and fled into the woods. The French and tlie 
Christian Hurons made fight for a time ; but when 
they saw another fleet of canoes approaching from 
tlie opposite shores or islands, they lost heart, and 
those escaped who could. Goupil was seized amid 
triumphant yells, as were also several of the Huron 
converts. Jogues sprang into the bulrushes, and 
might have escaped ; but when he saw Goupil and 
the neophytes in the clutches of the Iroquois, he 
had no heart to abandon them, but came out from 
his hiding-place, and gave himself up to the aston- 
ished victors. A few of them had remained to 
guard the prisoners ; the rest were chasing the 
fugitives. Jogues mastered his agony, and began 
to baptize those of the captive converts who needed 
baptism. 

Couture had eluded pursuit ; but when he 
thought of Jogues and of what perhaps awaited 
him, he resolved to share his fate, and, turning, 
retraced his steps. As he approached, five Iro- 
quois ran forward to meet him ; and one of them 
snapped his gun at his breast, but it missed fire. In 
his confusion and excitement, Couture fired his own 
piece, and laid the savage dead. The remaining 
four sprang upon him, stripped off all his clothing, 
tore away his finger-nails with their teeth, gnawed 
his fingers with the fury of famished dogs, and 
thrust a sword through one of his hands. Jogues 
broke from his guards, and, rushing to his friend, 



1642.] THE VICTORS AND THEIR PREY. 211 

threw his arms about his neck. The Iroquois 
dragged him away, beat him with their fists and 
war-clubs till he was senseless, and, when he re- 
vived, lacerated his fingers with their teeth, as they 
had done those of Couture. Then they turned 
upon Goupil, and treated him with the same fero- 
city. The Huron prisoners were left for the present 
unharmed. More of them were brought in every 
moment, till at length the number of captives 
amounted in all to twenty-two, while three Hurons 
had been killed in the fight and pursuit. The Iro- 
quois, about seventy in number, now embarked with 
their prey ; but not until they had knocked on the 
head an old Huron, whom Jogues, with his mangled 
hands, had just baptized, and who refused to leave 
the place. Then, under a burning sun, they crossed 
to the spot on which the town of Sorel now stands 
at the mouth of the river liichelieu, where they 
encamped.^ 

Their course was southward, up the River Riche- 
lieu and Lake Champlain ; thence, by way of Lake 

1 Tlie above, with much of what follows, rests on three documents. 
The first is a long letter, written in Latin, by Jogues, to the Father 
Provincial at Paris. It is dated at Rensselaerswyck (Albany), Aug. 5, 
1643, and is preserved in the Socieias Jesu Militans of Tanner, and in the 
Mortes Illiistres et Gesta eorum de Societate Jesu, etc., of Alegambe. There 
is a French translation in Martin's Bressani, and an English translation, 
by Mr. Shea, in the Neiu York Hist. Coll. of 1857. The second document 
is an old manuscript, entitled Naire de la Prise da Pere Jogues. It was 
written by the Jesuit Buteux, from the lips of Jogues. Father Martin, 
S. J., in Avhose custody it was, kindly permitted me to have a copy made 
from it. Besides these, there is a long account in the Relation des Hurons 
of 1647, and a briefer one in that of 1644. All these narratives show the 
strongest internal evidence of truth, and are perfectly concurrent. They 
are also supported by statements of escaped Huron prisoners, and by sev- 
eral letters and memoirs of the Dutch at Rensselaerswyck. 

19 



218 ISAAC JOGUES. [1642. 

George, to the Mohawk towns. The pain and fe- 
ver of their wounds, and the clouds of mosquitoes, 
which they could not drive off, left the prisoners 
no peace by day nor sleep by night. On the eighth 
day, they learned that a large Iroquois war-party, 
on their way to Canada, were near at hand ; and 
they soon approached their camp, on a small island 
near the southern end of Lake Champlain. The 
warriors, two hundred in number, saluted their vic- 
torious countrymen with volleys from their guns ; 
then, armed with clubs and thorny sticks, ranged 
themselves in two lines, between which the cap- 
tives were compelled to pass up the side of a rocky 
hill. On the way, they were beaten with such 
fury, that Jogues, who was last in the line, fell 
powerless, drenched in blood and half dead. As 
the chief man among the French captives, he fared 
the worst. His hands were again mangled, and 
fire applied to his body ; while the Huron chief, 
Eustache, was subjected to tortures even more atro- 
cious. When, at night, the exhausted sufferers 
tried to rest, the young warriors came to lacerate 
thek wounds and pull out their hau* and beards. 

In the morning they resumed their journey. And 
now the lake narrowed to the semblance of a tran- 
quil river. Before them was a woody mountain, close 
on then* right a rocky promontory, and between 
these flowed a stream, the outlet of Lake George. 
On those rocks, more than a hundred years after, 
rose the ramparts of Ticonderoga. They landed, 
shouldered their canoes and baggage, took their 
way through the woods, passed the spot where the 



1642.] LAKE GEORGE. 219 

fierce Highlanders and the dauntless regiments of 
England breasted in vain the storm of lead and 
fire, and soon reached the shore where Abercrom- 
bie landed and Lord Howe fell. First, of white 
men, Jogues and his companions gazed on the 
romantic lake that bears the name, not of its gentle 
discoverer, but of the dull Hanoverian king. Like 
a fan* Naiad of the wilderness, it slumbered be- 
tween the guardian mountains that breathe from 
crag and forest the stern poetry of war. But all 
then was sohtude ; and the clang of trumpets, the 
roar of cannon, and the deadly crack of the rifle 
had never as yet awakened their angry echoes.^ 

Again the canoes were launched, and the wild 
flotilla glided on its way, — now in the shadow of 
the heights, now on the broad expanse, now among 
the devious channels of the narrows, beset with 
woody islets, where the hot air Avas redolent of the 
pine, the spruce, and the cedar, — till they neared 
that tragic shore, where, in. the following century, 
New-England rustics baffled the soldiers of Dies- 
kau, where Montcalm planted his batteries, where 
the red cross waved so long amid the smoke, and 

1 Lake George, according to Jogues, was called by the Moliawka 
" Andiatarocte," or Place where the Lake closes. " Andiataraque " is found 
on a map of Sanson. Spofford, Gazetteer of New York, article "Lake 
George," says that it was called " Canideri-oit," or Tail of the Lake. 
Father Martin, in his notes on Bressani, prefixes to this name that of, 
" Iloricon," but gives no original authority. 

I have seen an old Latin map on which the name " Horiconi " is set 
down as belonging to a neighboring tribe. This seems to be only a mis- 
print for " Horicoui," that is, " Irocoui," or " Iroquois." In an old Enghsh 
map, prefixed to the rare tract, A Treatise of New England, the " Lake of 
llierocoyes " is laid down. The name " Horicon," as used by Cooper in 
his Last of the Mohicans, seems to have no sufficient historical foundation. 
In 16-16, the lake, as we shall see, was named " Lac St. Sacrement." 



220 ISAAC JOGUES. [1G42 

where at lengtli the summer night was hideous 
with carnage, and an honored name was stained 
with a memory of blood. ^ 

The Troquois handed at or near the future site of- 
Fort WiUiam Henry, left their canoes, and, with 
their prisoners, began their march for the nearest 
JVIohawk town. Each bore his share of the plun- 
der. Even Jogues, though his lacerated hands 
were in a frightful condition and his body covered 
with bruises, was forced to stagger on with the rest 
under a heavy load. He with his fellow-prisoners, 
and indeed the whole party, were half starved, sub- 
sisting chiefly on wild berries. They crossed the 
upper Hudson, and, in thirteen days after leaving 
the St. Lawrence, neared the wretched goal of 
their pilgrimage, a palisaded town, standing on a 
hill by the banks of the Hiver Mohawk. 

The whoops of the victors announced their ap- 
proach, and the savage hive sent forth its swarms. 
They thronged the side of the hill, the old and the 
young, each with a stick, or a slender iron rod, 
bought from the Dutchmen on the Hudson. They 
ranged themselves in a double line, reaching upward 
to the entrance of the town ; and through this 
" narrow road of Paradise," as Jogues calls it, the 
captives were led in single file. Couture in front, 
after him a half-score of Hurons, then Goupil, then 

1 The allusion is, of course, to the siege of Fort William Henry in 
1757, and the ensuing massacre by Montcalm's Indians. Charlevoix, 
with his usual carelessness, says that Jogues's captors took a circuitous 
route to avoid enemies. In truth, however, they were not in the slight- 
est danger of meeting any ; and they followed the route which, before the 
present century, was the great highway between Canada and New Hol- 
land, or New York. 



1642.] AMONG THE MOHAWKS. 221 

the remaining Hurons, and at last Jogues. As they 
passed, they were saluted with yells, screeches, 
and a tempest of blows. One, heavier than the 
others, knocked Jognes's breath from his body, and 
stretched him on the ground ; but it was death to 
lie there, and, regaining his feet, he staggered on 
with the rest.^ When they reached the town, the 
blows ceased, and they were all placed on a scaf- 
fold, or high platform, in the middle of the place. 
The three Frenchmen had fared the worst, and 
were frightfully disfigured. Goupil, especially, was 
streaming with blood, and livid with bruises from 
head to foot. 

They were allowed a few muiutes to recover 
then' breath, undisturbed, except by the hootings 
and gibes of the mob below. Then a chief called 
out, "Come, let us caress these Frenchmen!" — 
and the crowd, knife in hand, began to mount 
the scaffold. They ordered a Christian Algonquin 
woman, a prisoner among them, to cut off Jogues's 
left thumb, which she did ; and a thumb of Goupil 
was also severed, a clam-shell being used as the 
instrument, in order to increase the pain. It is need- 
less to specify further the tortures to which they 
were subjected, all designed to cause the greatest 
possible suffering T\dthout endangering life. At 
night, they were removed from the scaffold, and 
placed in one of the houses, each stretched on his 
back, with his limbs extended, and his ankles and 
wrists bound fast to stakes driven into the earthen 

^ This practice of forcing prisoners to "run the gauntlet" was by no 
means peculiar to the Iroquois, but was common to many tribes. 

19* 



222 ISAAC JOGUES. [1642. 

floor. The children now profited by the examples 
of their parents, and amused themselves by placing 
live coals and red-hot ashes on the naked bodies of 
the prisoners, who, bound fast, and covered with 
wounds and bruises which made every movement a 
torture, were sometimes unable to shake them off. 

In the morning, they were again placed on the 
scafibld, where, during this and the two following 
days, they remained exposed to the taunts of the 
crowd. Then they were led in triumph to the sec- 
ond Mohawk town, and afterwards to the third,^ 
suffering at each a repetition of cruelties, the detail 
of which would be as monotonous as revolting. 

In a house in the town of Teonontogen, Jogues 
was hung by the wrists between two of the upright 
poles which supported the structure, in such a 
manner that his feet could not touch the ground; 
and thus he remained for some fifteen minutes, in 
extreme torture, until, as he was on the point of 
swooning, an Indian, with an impulse of pity, cut 
the cords and released him. While they were in 
this town, four fresh Huron prisoners, just taken, 
were brought in, and placed on the scaffold with 
the rest. Jogues, in the midst of his pain and 
exhaustion, took the opportunity to convert them. 

^ The Mohawks had but three towns. The first, and the lowest on 
the river, was Osseruenon ; the second, two miles above, was Andagaron ; 
and the third, Teonontogen : or, as Megapolensis, in his Sketch of the Mo- 
hawks, writes the names, Asserue, Banagiro, and Thenondiogo. They all 
seem to have been fortified in the Iroquois manner, and their united 
population was thirty-five hundred, or somewhat more. At a later 
period, 1720, there were still three towns, named respectively Teahton- 
taioga, Ganowauga, and Ganeganaga. See the map in Morgan, League of 
the Iroquois. 



m 



1642.] RENJ& GOUPIL, 223 

An ear of green corn was thrown to him for food, 
and he discovered a few rain-drops cUnging to the 
husks. With these he baptized two of the Hurons. 
The remaining two received baptism soon after 
from a brook which the prisoners crossed on the 
way to another town. 

Couture, though he had incensed the Indians by 
kilUng one of their warriors, had gained their admi- 
ration by his bravery ; and, after torturing him most 
savagely, they adopted him into one of their fami- 
hes, in place of a dead relative. Thenceforth he 
was comparatively safe. Jogues and Goupil were 
less fortunate. Three of the Hurons had been 
burned to death, and they expected to share their 
fate. A council was held to pronounce their 
doom; but dissensions arose, and no result was 
reached. They were led back to the first village, 
where they remained, racked with suspense and 
half dead with exhaustion. Jogues, however, lost 
no opportunity to baptize dying infants, while Gou- 
pil taught children to make the sign of the cross. 
On one occasion, he made the sign on the forehead 
of a child, grandson of an Indian in whose lodge 
they lived. The superstition of the old savage 
was aroused. Some Dutchmen had told him that 
the sign of the cross came from the Devil, and 
would cause mischief He thought that Goupil 
was bewitching the child; and, resolving to rid 
himself of so dangerous a guest, applied for aid 
to two young braves. Jogues and Goupil, clad in 
their squalid garb of tattered skins, were soon aftt^r 
walking together in the forest that adjoined the 



224 ISAAC JOGUES. [1642. 

town, consoling themselves with prayer, and mutu- 
ally exhorting each other to suffer patiently for the 
sake of Christ and the Virgin, when, as they were 
returning, reciting their rosaries, they met the two 
young Indians, and read in their sullen visages an 
augury of ill. The Indians joined them, and ac- 
companied them to the entrance of the town, where 
one of the two, suddenly drawing a hatchet from 
beneath his blanket, struck it into the head of 
Goupil, who fell, murmuring the name of Christ. 
Jogues dropped on his knees, and, bowing his head 
in prayer, awaited the blow, when the murderer 
ordered him to get up and go home. He obeyed, 
but not until he had given absolution to his still 
breathing friend, and presently saw the lifeless 
body dragged through the town amid hootings and 
rejoicings. 

Jogues passed a night of anguish and desola- 
tion, and in the morning, reckless of life, set forth 
in search of Goupil's remains. "Where are you 
going so fast ? " demanded the old Indian, his mas- 
ter. " Do you not see those, fierce young braves, 
who are watchmg to kill you 1 " Jogues persisted, 
and the old man asked another Indian to go with 
him as a protector. The corpse had been flung 
into a neighboring ravine, at the bottom of which 
ran a torrent ; and here, with the Indian's help, 
Jogues found it, stripped naked, and gnawed by 
dogs. He dragged it into the water, and covered 
it with stones to save it from further mutilation, 
resolving to return alone on the following day and 
secretly bury it. But with the night there came 



1C42.] THE CORPSE OF GOUPIL. 225 

a storm ; and when, in the gray of the mornmgj 
Jogues descended to the bnnk of the stream, he 
found it a rolhng, turbid flood, and the body was 
nowhere to be seen. Had the Indians or the tor- 
rent borne it away] Jogues waded into the cold 
current ; it was the first of October ; he sounded it 
with his feet and with his stick; he searched the 
rocks, the thicket, the forest; but all in vain. 
Then, crouched by the pitiless stream, he mingled 
his tears with its waters, and, in a voice broken 
wiih groans, chanted the service of the dead.^ 

The Indians, it proved, and not the flood, had 
robbed him of the remains of his friend. Early in 
the spring, when the snows were melting in the 
woods, he was tol(J by Mohawk children that the 
body was lying, where it had been flung, in a lonely 
spot lower down the stream. He went to seek it ; 
found the scattered bones, stripped by the foxes 
and the birds; and, tenderly gathering them up, 
hid them in a hollow tree, hoping that a day might 
come when he could give them a Christian burial 
in consecrated ground. 

After the murder of Goupil, Jogues's life hung 
by a hair. He lived in hourly expectation of the 
tomahawk, and would have welcomed it as a boon. 
By signs and words, he was warned that his hour 
was near ; but, as he never shunned his fate, it fled 
from him, and each day, with renewed astonish- 
ment, he found himself still among the living. 

^ Jogues in Tanner, Societas Militans, 519 ; Bressani, 216 ; Lalemant, 
Relation, 1G47, 25, 26 ; Buteux, Naire, MS. ; Jogues, Notice sur Ren4 
Goupil. 



226 ISAAC JOGUES. [1642. 

Late in the autumn, a party of the Indians set 
forth on their yearly deer-hunt, and Jogues was 
ordered to go with them. Shivering and half 
famished, he followed them through the chill No 
vember forest, and shared their wild bivouac in 
tlie depths of the wintry desolation. The game 
they took was devoted to Areskoui, then* god, and 
eaten in his honor. Jogues would not taste the 
meat offered to a demon ; and thus he starved in 
the midst of plenty. At night, Avhen the kettle 
was slung, and the savage crew made merry around 
their fire, he crouched in a corner of the hut, 
gnawed by hunger, and pierced to the bone with 
cold. They thought his presence unpropitious to 
their hunting, and the womeij especially hated 
him. His demeanor at once astonished and in- 
censed his masters. He brought them fire-wood, 
like a squaw; he did thek bidding without a mur- 
mur, and patiently bore their abuse ; but when they 
mocked at his God, and laughed at his devotions, 
their slave assumed an air and tone of authority, 
and sternly rebuked them.^ 

He would sometimes escape from " this Baby- 
lon," as he calls the hut, and wander in the forest, 
telling his beads and repeating passages of Scrip- 
ture. In a remote and lonely spot, he cut the 
bark in the form of a cross from the trunk of a 
great tree; and here he made his prayers. This 
living martyr, half clad in shaggy furs, kneeling 
on the snow among the icicled rocks and beneath 
the gloomy pines, bowing in adoration before 

1 Lalemant, Relation, 1647, 41. 



1643.] HIS NARROW ESCAPE. 227 

the emblem of the faith in which was his only con- 
solation and his only hope, is alike a theme for the 
pen and a subject for the pencil. 

The Indians at last grew tired of him, and 
sent him back to the village. Here he remained 
till the middle of March, baptizing infants and try- 
ing to convert adults. He told them of the sun, 
moon, planets, and stars. They listened with 
interest ; but when from astronomy he passed to 
theology, he spent his breath in vain. In March, 
the old man with whom he lived set forth for his 
spring fishing, taking with him his squaw, and 
several children. Jogues also was of the party. 
They repaired to a»lake, perhaps Lake Saratoga, 
four days distant. Here they subsisted for some 
time on frogs, the entrails of fish, and other garb- 
age. Jogues passed his days in the forest, repeat- 
ing his prayers, and carving the name of Jesus on 
trees, as a terror to the demons of the wilderness. 
A messenger at length arrived from the town ; and 
on the following day, under the pretence that signs 
of an enemy had been seen, the party broke up 
their camp, and returned home in hot haste. The 
messenger had brought tidings that a war-party, 
which had gone out against the French, had been 
defeated and destroyed, and that the whole popula- 
tion were clamoring to appease their grief by tor- 
turing Jogues to death. This was the true cause of 
the sudden and mysterious return ; but when they 
reached the town, other tidings had arrived. The 
missing warriors were safe, and on their way home 
in triumph with a large number of prisoners. Again 



228 ISAAC JOGUES. [1G43, 

Jogues's life was spared ; but he was forced to 
witness the torture and butchery of the converts 
and allies of the French. Existence became un- 
endurable to him, and he longed to die. War- 
parties were continually going out. Should they 
be defeated and cut off, he would pay the forfeit 
at the stake ; and if they came back, as they 
usually did, with booty and prisoners, he was 
doomed to see his countr}Tnen and their Indian 
friends mangled, burned, and devoured. 

Jogues had shown no disposition to escape, and 
great liberty was therefore allowed him. He went 
from toAvn to town, giving absolution to the Chris- 
tian captives, and converting , and baptizing the 
heathen. On one occasion, he baptized a woman 
in the midst of the fii-e, under pretence of lifting 
a cup of water to her parched lips. There was no 
lack of objects for his zeal. A single war-party 
returned from the Huron country with nearly a 
hundred prisoners, who were distributed among the 
Iroquois towns, and the greater part burned.^ Of 
the children of the Mohawks and their neighbors, 
he had baptized, before August, about seventy; 
insomuch that he began to regard his captivity 
as a Providential interposition for the saving of 
souls. 

At the end of July, he went with a party of 

1 The Dutch clergyman, Megapolensis, at this time living at Tort 
Orange, bears the strongest testimony to the ferocity with which his 
friends, the Mohawks, treated their prisoners. He mentions the same 
modes of torture which Jogues describes, and is very explicit as to 
cannibalism. " The common people," he saj-s, "eat the arms, buttocks, 
and trunk; but the chiefs eat the head and the heart." {Short Sketch of 
the Mohawk IndiMis.) This feast was of a religious character. 



1613.] FORT ORANGE. 229 

Indians to a fishing-place on the Hudson, ;about 
twenty miles below Fort Orange. AVhile here, 
he learned that another war-party had lately 
returned with prisoners, two of whom had been 
burned to death at Osseruenon. On this, his con- 
science smote him that he had not remained in 
the town to give the sufferers absolution or bap- 
tism ; and he begged leave of the old woman who 
had him in charge to return at the first opportu- 
nity. A canoe soon after went up the river with 
some of the Iroquois, and he was allowed to go 
in it. When they reached Rensselaerswyck, the 
Indians landed to trade with the Dutch, and took 
Jogues with them. 

The centre of this rude little settlement was 
Fort Orange, a miserable structure of logs, stand- 
ing on a spot now within the limits of the city of 
Albany.^ It contained several houses and other 
buildings ; and behind it was a small church, 
recently erected, and serving as the abode of the 
pastor. Dominie Megapolensis, known in our day 
as the writer of an interesting, though short, 
account of the Mohawks. Some twenty-five or 
thirty houses, roughly built of boards and roofed 
with thatch, were scattered at intervals on or near 
the borders of the Hudson, above and below the 
fort. Their inhabitants, about a hundred in num- 
ber, were for the most part rude Dutch farmers, 
tenants of Van Rensselaer, the patroon, or lord of 
the manor. They raised wheat, of which they 

1 The site of the Fhoenix Hotel. — Note hy Mr. Shea to Jogues' s Novum 
Belgium. 

20 



230 ISAAC JOGUES. [1643. 

made beer, and oats, with which they fed thek' 
numerous horses. They traded, too, with the 
Indians, who profited greatly by the competition 
among them, receiving guns, knives, axes, kettles, 
cloth, and beads, at moderate rates, in exchange for 
their furs.^ The Dutch were on excellent terms 
with their red neighbors, met them in the forest 
without the least fear, and sometimes intermarried 
with them. They had known of Jogues's cap- 
tivity, and, to their great honor, had made efforts 
for his release, offering for that purpose goods 
to a considerable value, but without effect.^ 

At Fort Orange Jogues heard startlmg news. 
The Indians of the village where he lived were, he 
was told, enraged against him, and determined to 
burn him. About the fu'st of July, a war-party 
had set out for Canada, and one of the warriors 
had offered to Jogues to be the bearer of a letter 
from him to the French commander at Three 
Rivers, thinking probably to gain some advantage 
under cover of a parley. Jogues knew that the 
French would be on their guard; and he felt 
it his duty to lose no opportunity of informing 
them as to the state of affairs among the Iroquois. 

1 Jogues, Novum Belgium; Barnes, Settlement of Albany, 50-55; O'Cal- 
laghan, New Nctherlunil, Cliap. VI. 

On tlie relations of tlie Mohawks and Dutch, see Megapolensis, Short 
Sketch of the Mohawk Indians, and poi'tions of the letter of Jogues to his 
Superior, dated Rensselaerswyek, Aug. 30, 1643. 

''' See a long letter of Arendt Van Curler (Corlaer) to Van Eensselaer, 
June 16, 1643, in O'Callaghan's New Nethedand, Appendix L. " We per- 
suaded them so far," writes Van Curler, " that they promised not to kill 
them. . . . The French captives ran screaming after us, and besought 
us to do all in our power to release them out of the hands of the bar- 
baiiins " 



J 



1643.1 THE DUTCH BEFRIEND HIM. 231 

A Dutchman gave him a piece of paper; and he 
wrote a letter, in a jargon of Latin, French, and 
Huron, warning his countrymen to be on their 
guard, as war-parties w^ere constantly going out, 
and they could hope for no respite from attack until 
late hi the autumn.^ When the Iroquois reached 
the mouth of the River E-ichelieu, where a small 
fort had been built by the French the preceding 
summer, the messenger asked for a parley, and 
gave .Togues's letter to the commander of the post, 
who, after reading it, turned his cannon on the 
savages. They fled in dismay, leaving behind 
them their baggage and some of their guns; and, 
returning home in a fury, charged Jogues with hav- 
ing caused their discomfiture. Jogues had expect- 
ed this result, and was prepared to meet it ; but 
several of the principal Dutch settlers, and among 
them Van Curler, who had made the previous at- 
tempt to rescue him, urged that his death was cer- 
tain, if he returned to the Indian town, and advised 
him to make his escape. In the Hudson, opposite 
the settlement, lay a small Dutch vessel nearly ready 
to sail. Van Curler offered him a passage m her to 
Bordeaijx or Rochelle, — representing that the op- 
portunity was too good to be lost, and making light 
of the prisoner's objection, that a connivance in his 
escape on the part of the Dutch vs^ould excite the 
resentment of the Indians against them. Jogues 
thanked him warmly ; but, to his amazement, asked 
for a night to consider the matter, and take counsel 
of God in prayer. 

1 See a French rendering of the letter in Vimont, Relation, 1643, p. 76. 



232 



ISAAC JOGUES. 



[1643. 



He spent the night in great agitation, tossed 
by doubt, and full of anxiety lest his self-love 
should beguile him from his duty.^ Was it not 
possible that the Indians might spare his life, and 
that, by a timely drop of water, he might still res- 
cue souls from torturing devils, and eternal fires of 
perdition 1 On the other hand, would he not, by 
remaining to meet a fate almost inevitable, incur 
the guilt of suicide 1 And even should he escape 
torture and death, could he hope that the Indians 
would again permit him to instruct and baptize 
their prisoners'? Of his French companions, one, 
Goupil, was dead ; while Couture had urged Jogues 
to flight, saying that he would then follow his ex- 
ample, but that, so long as the Father remained 
a prisoner, he, Couture, would share his fate. 
Before morning, Jogues had made his decision. 
God, he thought, would be better pleased should 
he embrace the opportunity given him. He went 
to find his Dutch friends, and, with a profusion of 
thanks, accepted their offer. They told him that a 
boat should be left for him on the shore, and that 
he must watch his time, and escape in it to the 
vessel, where he would be safe. 

He and his Indian masters were lodged together 
in a large building, like a barn, belonging to a Dutch 
farmer. It was a hundred feet long, and had no 
partition of any kind. At one end the farmer kept 
his cattle ; at the other he slept with his wife, a 
Mohawk squaw, and his children, while his Indian 
guests lay on the floor in the middle.^ As he is 

1 Buteux, Narr^, MS. 2 Jbid. 



1643 J HE ATTEMPTS TO ESCAPE. 233 

described as one of the principal persons of the 
colony, it is clear that the civilization of E,ensse- 
laerswyck was not high. 

In the evening, Jogues, in such a manner as not 
to excite the suspicion of the Indians, went out to 
reconnoitre. There was a fence around the house, 
and, as he was passing it, a large dog belonging to 
the farmer flew at him, and bit him very severely 
in the leg. The Dutchman, hearing the noise, 
came out with a light, led Jogues back into the 
building, and bandaged his wound. He seemed to 
have some suspicion of the prisoner's design ; for, 
fearful perhaps that his escape might exasperate 
the Indians, he made fast the door m such a man- 
ner that it could not readily be opened. Jogues 
now lay down among the Indians, who, rolled in 
their blankets, were stretched around him. He 
was fevered with excitement ; and the agitation of 
his mind, joined to the pain of his wound, kept 
him awake all night. About dawn, while the 
Indians were still asleep, a laborer in the employ 
of the farmer came in with a lantern, and Jogues, 
who spoke no Dutch, gave him to understand by 
signs that he needed his help and guidance. The 
man was disposed to aid him, silently led the way 
out, quieted the dogs, and showed him the path to 
the river. It was more than half a mile distant, 
and the way was rough and broken. Jogues was 
greatly exhausted, and his wounded limb gave him 
such pain that he walked with the utmost difficulty. 
When he reached the shore, the day was breaking, 
and he found, to his dismay, that the ebb of the 

20* 



234 



ISAAC JOGUES. 



[1643 



tide had left the boat high and dry. He shouted 
to the vessel, but no one heard him. His despera- 
tion gave him strength ; and, by working the boat 
to and fro, he pushed it at length, little by little, 
into the water, entered it, and rowed to the ves- 
sel. The Dutch sailors received him kindly, and 
hid him in the bottom of the hold, placmg a large 
box over the hatchway. 

He remained two days, half stifled, in this foul 
lurking-place, while the Indians, furious at his 
escape, ransacked the settlement ui vain to find 
him. They came off to the vessel, and so terrified 
the officers, that Jogues was sent on shore at night, 
and led to the fort. Here he was hidden in the 
garret of a house occupied by a miserly old man, 
to whose charge he was consigned. Food was 
sent to him ; but, as his host appropriated the 
larger part to himself, Jogues was nearly starved. 
There was a compartment of his garret, separated 
from the rest by a partition of boards. Here the 
old Dutchman, who, like many others of the settlers, 
carried on a trade with the Mohawks, kept a quan- 
tity of goods for that purpose ; and hither he often 
brought his customers. The boards of the parti- 
tion had shrunk, leaving wide crevices ; and Jogues 
could plainly see the Indians, as they passed be- 
tween him and the light. They, on their part, 
might as easily have seen him, if he had not, when 
he heard them entering the house, hidden him- 
self, behind some barrels in the corner, where he 
would sometimes remain crouched for hours, in 
a constramed and painful posture, half suffocated 



1643.] MANHATTAN. . 235 

with heat, and afraid to move a Hmb. ' His wound- 
ed leg began to show dangerous symptoms ; but he 
was reheved by the care of a Dutch surgeon of the 
fort. Tlie minister, Megapolensis, also visited him, 
and did all in his power for the comfort of his 
Catholic brother, with whom he seems to have been 
well pleased, and whom he calls " a very learned 
scholar." ^ 

When Jogues had remained for six weeks in this 
hiding-place, his Dutch friends succeeded in satis- 
fying his Indian masters by the payment of a large 
ransom.^ A vessel from Manhattan, now New York, 
soon after brought up an order from the Director- 
General, Kieft, that he should be sent to him. 
Accordingly he was placed in a small vessel, which 
carried him down the Hudson. The Dutch on 
board treated him with great kindness ; and, to do 
him honor, named after him one of the islands 
in the river. At Manhattan he found a dilapidated 
fort, garrisoned by sixty soldiers, and containing a 
stone church and the Director-General's house, to- 
gether with storehouses and barracks. Near it Avere 
ranges of small houses, occupied chiefly by mechan- 
ics and laborers ; while the dwellings of the remain- 
ing colonists, numbering in all four or five hundred, 
were scattered here and there on the island and the 
neighboring shores. The settlers were of different 
sects and nations, but chiefly Dutch Calvinists. 
Kieft told his guest that eighteen different languages 

1 Megapolensis, A Short Shetcli of the Mohawk Indians. 

2 Lettre de Jorjues a Lalemant, Rcnnes, Jan. 6, 1644. — See Relation, 1643, 
p. 79. — Goods were given the Indians to the value of three hundred 
livres. 



236 ■ ISAAC JOGUES. [1643. 

were spoken at Manliattan,^ The colonists were in 
the midst of a bloody Indian war, brought on by 
their own besotted cruelty ; and while Jogues was at 
the fort, some forty of the Dutchmen were killed on 
the neighbormg farms, and many barns and houses 
burned.^ 

The Director-General, with a humanity that was 
far from usual with him, exchanged Jogues's squalid 
and savage dress for a suit of Dutch cloth, and gave 
him passage in a small vessel which was then about 
to sail. The voyage was rough and tedious ; and 
the passenger slept on deck or on a coil of ropes, 
suffering greatly from cold, and often drenched by 
the wav6s that broke over the vessel's side. At 
length she reached Falmouth, on the southern coast 
of England, when all the crew went ashore for a 
carouse, leaving Jogues alone on board. A boat 
presently came alongside with a gang of despera- 
does, who boarded her, and rifled her of everything 
valuable, threatened Jogues with a pistol, and 
robbed him of his hat and coat. He obtained some 
assistance from the crew of a French ship in the 
harbor, and, on the day before Christmas, took pas- 
sage in a small coal vessel for the neighboring coast 
of Brittany. In the following afternoon he was set 
on shore a little to the north of Brest, and, seeing a 
peasant's cottage not far off, he approached it, and 
asked the way to the nearest church. The peasant 
and his wife, as the narrative gravely tells us, mis- 

^ Jogues, Novum Belgium. 

2 This war was with Algonquin tribes of the neighborhood. ^— Sea 
O'C'allaghan, New Netherland, I., Chap. III. 



1644.] AMONG HIS BRETHREN, 287 

took him, by reason of his modest deportment, for 
some poor, but pious Irishman, and asked him to 
share their supper, after finishing his devotions, an 
invitation which Jogues, half famished as he was, 
gladly accepted. He reached the church in time 
for the evening mass, and wdth an unutterable joy 
knelt belore the altar, and renewed the communion 
of which he had been deprived so long. When he 
returned to the cottage, the attention of his hosts 
was at once attracted to his mutilated and distorted 
hands. They asked with amazement how he could 
have received such injuries ; and when they heard 
the atory of his tortures, their surprise and ven- 
,eration knew no bounds. Two young ghls, their 
daughters, begged him to accept all they had to 
give, — a handful of sous ; while the peasant made 
known the character of his new guest to his neigh- 
bors. A trader from E-ennes brought a horse to 
the door, and offered the use of it to Jogues, to 
carry him to the Jesuit college in that town. He 
gratefully accepted it ; and, on the morning of the 
fifth of January, 1644, reached his destination. 

He dismounted, and knocked at the door of the 
college. The porter opened it, and saw a man 
wearing on his head an old woollen nightcap, and 
in an attire little better than that of a beggar. 
Jogues asked to see the Rector ; but the porter an- 
swered, coldly, that the Rector was busied in the 
Sacristy. Jogues begged him to say that a man 
was at the door with news from Canada. The mis- 
sions of Canada were at this time an object of pri- 
mal interest to the Jesuits, and above all to the 



238 ISAAC JOGUES. [IGM 

Jesuits of France. A letter from Jogues, written 
during his captivity, had already reached France, as 
had also the Jesuit Relation of 1643, which con- 
tained a long account of his capture ; and he had 
no doubt been an engrossing theme of conversation 
in every house of the French Jesuits. The Father 
Rector was putting on his vestments to say mass ; 
but when he heard that a poor man from Canada 
had asked for him at the door, he postponed the 
service, and went to meet him. Jogues, without 
discovering himself, gave him a letter from the 
Dutch Director-General attesting his character. 
The Rector, without reading it, began to question 
^lim as to the affairs of Canada, and at length 
asked him if he knew Father Jogues. 

" I knew him very well," was the reply. 

" The Iroquois have taken him," pursued the 
Rector. "Is he dead? Have they murdered him? 

" No," answered Jogues ; "he is alive and at 
liberty, and I am he." And he fell on his knees 
to ask his Superior's blessing. 

That night was a night of jubilation and thanks- 
giving in the college of Rennes.^ 

Jogues became a centre of curiosity and rever- 
ence. He was summoned to Paris. The Queen, 
Anne of Austria, wished to see him ; and when the 
persecuted slave of the Mohawks was conducted 
into her presence, she kissed his mutilated hands, 
while the ladies of the Court thronged around to 

1 For Jogues's arrival in Brittany, see Lettre de Jogues a LalemarU, 

Rennes, Jan. 6, 1644 ; Lettre de Jogues a , Rennes, Jan. 5, 1644, (in 

Relation, 1643,) and the long account in the Relation of 1647. 



1G44.] HE RETURNS TO CANADA. 239 

do him homage. We are told, and no doubt with 
truth, that these honors were unwelcome to the 
modest and single-hearted missionary, who thought 
only of returning to his work of converting the 
Indians. A priest with any deformity of body is 
debarred from saying mass. The teeth and knives 
of the Iroquois bad inflicted an injury woise than 
the torturers imagined, for they had robbed Jogues 
of the privilege which was the chief consolation of 
his life; but the Pope, by a special dispensation, 
restored it to him, and with the opening spring he 
sailed again for Canada. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

1641-1646. 
THE IROQUOIS. BRESSANI. DE NOUE. 

War. — Distress and Terror. — Richelieu. — Battle. — Ruin of 
Indian Tribes. — Mutual Destruction. — Iroquois and Al- 
gonquin. — Atrocities. — Frightful Position of the French. 
— Joseph Bressani. — His Capture. — His Treatment. — His 
Escape. — Anne de Noub. — His Nocturnal Journey. — His 
Death. 

Two forces were battling for the mastery of 
Canada: on the one side, Christ, the Virgin, and 
the Angels, ^vith their agents, the priests ; on the 
other, the Devil, and his tools, the Iroquois. Such 
at least was the view of the case held in full 
faith, not by the Jesuit Fathers alone, but by most 
of the colonists. Never before had the fiend put 
forth such rage, and in the Iroquois he found 
instruments of a nature not uncongenial with his 
o^vn. 

At Quebec, Three Rivers, Montreal, and the 
little fort of Richelieu, that is to say, in all Canada, 
no man could hunt, fish, till the fields, or cut a 
tree in the forest, without peril to his scalp. The 
Iroquois were everywhere, and nowhere. A yell, 

[240] 



1641-45.] DISTRESS OF THE COLONY. 241 

a volley of bullets, a rush of screeching savages, 
and all was over. The soldiers hastened to the 
spot to find silence, solitude, and a mangled 
corpse. 

" I had as lief," writes Father Vimont, "be beset 
by goblins as by the Iroquois. The one are about 
as invisible as the other. Our people on the 
Richelieu and at Montreal are kept in a closer 
confinement than ever were monks or nuns in our 
smallest convents in France." 

The Confederates at this time were in a flush 
of unparalleled audacity. They despised white 
men as base poltroons, and esteemed themselves 
warriors and heroes, destined to conquer all man- 
kind.^ The fire-arms with which the Dutch had 
rashly supplied them, joined to their united coun- 
cils, their courage, and ferocity, gave them an 
advantage over the surrounding tribes which they 
fully understood. Their passions rose with their 
sense of power. They boasted that they would 
wipe the Hurons, the Algonquins, and the French 
from the face of the earth, and carry the " white 
girls," meaning the nuns, to their villages. This 
last event, indeed, seemed more than probable ; 
and the Hospital nuns left their exposed station at 
Sillery, and withdrew to the ramparts and palisadey 
of Quebec. The St. Lawrence and the Ottawa 
were so infested, that communication with the 

^ Bressani, when a prisoner among them, writes to this eifect in a 
letter to his Superior. — See Relation AhrAj^e, 131. 

The anonymous author of the Relation of 1660 says, that, in their 
beUef, if their nation were destroyed, a general confusion and overthrow 
of mankind must needs he the consequence. — Relation, 1660, 6i 

21 



24:2 THE IROQUOIS, |1642. 

Huron country was cut off; and three times the 
annual packet of letters sent thither to the mission- 
aries fell into the hands of the Iroquois. 

It was towards the close of the year 1640 that 
the scourge of Iroquois war had begun to fall 
heavily on the French. At that time, a party of 
then' warriors waylaid and captured Thomas Gode- 
froy and Fran9ois Marguerie, the latter a young 
man of great energy and daring, familiar with the 
woods, a master of the Algonquin language, and a 
scholar of no mean acquirements.^ To the great 
joy of the colonists, he and his companion were 
brought back to Three Rivers by their captors, and 
given up, in the vain hope that the French would 
respond with a gift of fu-e-arms. Their demand for 
them being declined, they broke off the parley in a 
rage, fortified themselves, fired on the French, and 
withdrew under cover of night. 

Open war now ensued, and for a time all was be- 
wilderment and terror. How to check the inroads 
of an enemy so stealthy and so keen for blood was 
the problem that taxed the brain of INIontmagny, 
the Governor. He thought he had found a solution, 
when he conceived the plan of building a fort at 
the mouth of the River Richelieu, by which the 
Iroquois always made their descents to the St. 
Lawrence. Happily for the perishing colony, the 
Cardinal de Richelieu, in 1642, sent out thirty or 
for^y soldiers for its defence.^ Ten times the num- 

1 During his captivity, he wrote, on a beaver-skin, a letter to the 
Dutch in French, Latin, and Englisli. 

2 Faillon, Colonie Frangaise, II. 2 ; Vimont, Relation, 1642, 2, 44. 



1642.] ■ FORT RICHELIEU. 243 

ber would have been scarcely sufficient ; but even 
this slight succor was hailed with delight, and 
Montmagny was enabled to carry into elFect his 
plan of the fort, for which hitherto he had had 
neither builders nor garrison. He took with him, 
besides the new-comers, a body of soldiers and armed 
laborers from Quebec, and, with a force of about a 
hundred men in all,^ sailed for the Richelieu, in 
a brigantine and two or three open boats. 

On the thirteenth of August he reached his des- 
tination, and landed where the town of Sorel now 
stands. It was but eleven days before that Jogues 
and his companions had been captured, and Mont- 
magny's followers found ghastly tokens of the disas- 
ter. The heads of the slain were stuck on poles by 
the side of the river ; and several trees, from which 
portions of the bark had been peeled, were daubed 
with the rude picture-writing in which the victors 
recorded their exploit.^ Among the rest, a repre- 
sentation of Jogues himself was clearly distinguish- 
able. The heads were removed, the trees cut down, 
and a large cross planted on the spot. An altar was 
raised, and all heard mass ; then a volley of musketry 
was fired; and then they fell to their work. They 
hewed an opening into the forest, dug up the roots, 
cleared the ground, and cut, shaped, and planted 

1 Marie de I'Incarnation, Lettre, Sept. 29, 1642. 

''■ Vimont, Relation, 1642, 52. 

This practice was common to many tribes, and is not yet extinct. 
Tlie writer has seen similar records, made by recent war-parties of Crows 
or Blackfeet, in the remote West. In this case, the bark was removed 
from the trunks of large cotton-wood trees, and the pictures traced with 
cliarcoal and vermilion. There were marks for scalps, for prisoners, and 
for the conquerors themselves. 



244 THE IROQUOIS. 11642. 

palisades. Thus a week passed, and their defences 
were nearly completed, when suddenly the war- 
whoop rang in their ears,* and two hundred Iroquois 
rushed upon them from the borders of the clearing.' 

It was the party of warriors that Jogues had met 
on an island in Lake Champlain. But for the cour- 
age of Du Rocher, a corporal, who was on guard, 
they would have carried all before them. They 
were rushing through an opening in the palisade, 
when he, with a few soldiers, met them with such 
vigor and resolution, that they were held in check 
long enough for the rest to snatch their arms. 
Montmagny, who was on the river in his brigantine, 
hastened on shore, and the soldiers, encouraged by 
his arrival, fought with great determination. 

The Iroquois, on their part, swarmed up to the 
palisade, thrust their guns through the loop-holes, 
and fired on those within ; nor was it till several of 
them had been killed and others wounded that they 
learned to keep a more prudent distance. A tall 
savage, wearing a crest of the hair of some animal, 
dyed scarlet and bound with a fillet of wampum, 
leaped forAvard to the attack, and was shot dead. 
Another shared his fate, with seven buck-shot in 
his shield, and as many in his body. The French, 
with shouts, redoubled their fire, and the Indians 
at length lost heart and fell back. The wounded 
dropped guns, shields, and war-clubs, and the whole 
band withdrew to the shelter of a fort which they 
had built in the forest, three miles aboA^e. On the 

1 The Relation of 1642 says three hundred. Jogues who had l)een 
among them to his cost, is tlie better authority. 



1641-45.J IROQUOIS AND ALGONQUIN. 245 

part of the French, one man was killed and four 
wounded. They had narrowly escaped a disaster 
which might have proved the ruin of the colony ; 
and they now gained time so far to strengthen their 
defences as to make them reasonably secure against 
any attack of savages.^ The new fort, however, 
did not effectually answer its purpose of stopping 
the inroads of the Iroquois. They would land a 
mile or more above it, carry their canoes through 
the forest across an intervening tongue of land, and 
then launch them in the St. Lawrence, while the 
garrison remained in total ignorance of their move- 
ments. 

While the French were thus beset, then* Indian 
allies fared still worse. The effect of Iroquois 
hostilities on all the Algonquin tribes of Canada, 
from the Saguenay to the Lake of the Nipissings, 
had become frightfully apparent. Famine and 
pestilence had aided the ravages of war, till these 
wretched bands seemed in the course of rapid 
extermination. Their spirit was broken. They 
became humble and docile in the hands of the 
missionaries, ceased their railings against the new 
doctrine, and leaned on the French as their only 
hope in this extremity of woe. Sometimes they 
would appear in troops at Sillery or Three Rivers, 

1 Vimont, Relation, 1642, 50, 51. 

Assaults by Indians on fortified places are rare. The Iroquois are 
known, however, to have made them with success in several cases, 
some of the most remarkable of which will appear hereafter. The cour- 
age of Indians is uncertain and spasmodic. They are capable, at times, 
of a furious temerity, approaching desperation ; but this is liable to sud- 
den and extreme reaction. Their courage, too, is much oftener displayed 
in covert than in open attacks. 

21* 



246 THE IROQUOIS. [1641-42. 

scared out of their forests by the sight of an 
Iroquois footprint; then some new terror would 
seize them, and drive them back to seek a hiding- 
place in the deepest thickets of the wilderness. 
Their best hunting-grounds were beset by the 
enemy. They starved for weeks together, sub- 
sisting on the bark of trees or the thongs of raw 
hide which formed the net-work of their snow- 
shoes. The mortalit}^ among them was prodigious. 
"Where, eight years ago," writes Father Vimont, 
"one would see a hundred wigwams, one now sees 
scarcely five or six. A chief who once had eight 
hundred warriors has now but thirty or forty ; and 
in place of fleets of three or four hundred canoes, 
we see less than a tenth of that number."^ 

These Canadian tribes were undergoing that pro- 
cess of extermination, absorption, or expatriation, 
which, as there is reason to believe, had for many 
generations formed the gloomy and meaningless 
history of the greater part of this continent. Three 
DY four hundred Dutch guns, in the hands of 
the conquerors, gave an unwonted quickness and 
decision to the work, but in no way changed its 
essential character. The horrible nature of this 
warfare can be known only through examples ; and 
of these one or two will suffice. 

A band of Algonquins, late in the autumn of 
1641, set forth from Three Eivers on their winter 
hunt, and, fearful of the Iroquois, made thek way 
far northward, into the depths of the forests that 
border the Ottawa. Here they thought themselves 

1 Relation, 1644, 3. 



1642.J FUGITIVES. 241 

safe, built their lodges, and began to hunt the 
moose and beaver. But a large party of their 
enemies, with a persistent ferocity that is truly 
astonishing, had penetrated even here, found the 
traces of the snow-shoes, followed up their human 
prey, and hid at nightfall among the rocks and 
thickets around the encampment. At midnight, 
thek yells and the blows of their war-clubs 
awakened their sleeping victims. In a feAv minutes 
all were in their power. They bound the prisoners 
hand and foot, rekindled the fire, slung the kettles, 
cut the bodies of the slain to pieces, and boiled 
and devoured them before the eyes of the wretched 
survivors. "In a word," says the narrator, "they 
ate men with as much appetite and more pleasure 
than hunters eat a boar or a stag." ^ 

Meanwhile they amused themselves with banter- 
ing their prisoners. "Uncle," said one of them 
to an old Algonquin, " you are a dead man. You 
are going to the land of souls. Tell them to take 
heart: they will have good company soon, for we 
are going to send all the rest of your nation to join 
them. This will be good news for them."^ 

This old man, who is described as no less mali- 
cious than his captors, and even more crafty, soon 
after escaped, and brought tidings of the disaster tc 
the French. In the following spring, two women of 
the party also escaped ; and, after suffering almost 
incredible hardships, reached Three Hivers, torn 
with briers, nearly naked, and in a deplorable state 
of bodily and mental exhaustion. One of them 

1 Vimont, Relation, 1642, 46. 2 n^id., 45. 



'-248 THE IROQUOIS. [164^ 

told her story to Father Buteux, who translated it 
into French, and gave it to Vimont to be printed 
in the Relation of 1642. Revolting as it is, it is 
necessary to recount it. Suffice it to say, that it is 
sustained by the whole body of contemporary evi- 
dence in regard to the practices of the Iroquois and 
some of the neighboring tribes. 

The conquerors feasted in the lodge till nearly 
daybreak, and then, after a short rest, began their 
march homeward with thek prisoners. Among 
these were three women, of whom the narrator 
was one, who had each a child of a few weeks or 
months old. At the first halt, theh captors took 
the infants from them, tied them to wooden spits, 
placed them to die slowly before a fire, and feasted 
on them before the eyes of the agonized mothers, 
whose shrieks, supplications, and frantic efi"orts to 
break the cords that bound them were met with 
mockery and laughter. "They are not men, they 
are wolves!" sobbed the wretched woman, as she 
told what had befallen her to the pit}ing Jesuit.^ At 
the Fall of the Chaudiere, another of the women 
ended her woes by leaping into the cataract. When 
they approached the first Iroquois town, they were 
met, at the distance of several leagues, by a crowd of 
the inhabitants, and among them a troop of women, 
bringing food to regale the triumphant warriors. 
Here they halted, and passed the night in songs of 
victory, mingled with the dismal chant of the prison- 
ers, who were forced to dance for then- entertainment. 

On the morrow, they entered the town, leading 

^ Vimont, Relation, 1642, 46. 



1642.] IROQUOIS CRUELTY. 249 

the captive Algonquins, fast bound, and surrounded 
by a crowd of men, women, and children, all sing- 
ing at the top of their throats. The largest lodge 
was ready to receive them; and as they entered, the 
victims read their doom in the fires that blazed on 
the earthen floor, and in the aspect of the attendant 
savages, whom the Jesuit Father calls attendant 
demons, that waited their coming. The torture 
which ensued was but preliminary, designed to 
cause all possible suffering without touching life. 
It consisted in blows with sticks and cudgels, gash- 
ing their limbs with knives, cutting off their fingers 
with clam-shells, scorching them with firebrands, 
and other indescribable torments.^ The women 
were stripped naked, and forced to dance to the 
singing of the male prisoners, amid the applause 
and laughter of the crowd. They then gave them 
food, to strengthen them for further suffering. 

On the following morning, they were placed on 
a large scaffold, in sight of the whole population. 
It was a gala-day. Young and old were gathered 
from far and near. Some mounted the scaffold, 
and scorched them with torches and fii-ebrands; 
while the children, standing beneath the bark plat- 
form, applied fire to the feet of the prisoners be- 
tween the crevices. The Algonquin women were 
told to burn their husbands and companions ; and 
one of them obeyed, vainly thinking to appease her 

^ " Cette pauure creature qui s'est sauuee, a les deux pouces couppez, 
ou plus tost hachez. Quand ils nie les eurent couppez, disoit-elle, ils me 
les voulurent faire manger ; mais ie les mis sur mon giron, et leur dis 
qu'ils me tuassent s'ils vouloient, que ie ne leur pouuois obeir." — Buteux, 
in Relation, 1642, 47. 



250 THE IROQUOIS. [1642. 

tormentors. The stoicism of one of the warriors 
enraged his captors beyond measure. " Scream ! 
why don't you scream ] " they cried, thrusting their 
burning brands at his naked body. " Look at me," 
he answered; "you cannot make me wince. If you 
were in my place, you would screech like babies." 
At this they fell upon him with redoubled fury, 
till their knives and fh'ebrands left in him no 
semblance of humanity. He was defiant to the 
last, and when death came to his relief, they tore 
out his heart and devoured it ; then hacked him 
in pieces, and made their feast of triumph on his 
mangled limbs. ^ 

All the men and all the old women of the party 
were put to death in a similar manner, though but 
few displayed the same amazing fortitude. The 
younger women, of whom there were about thirty, 
after passing their ordeal of torture, were permitted 
to live ; and, disfigured as they were, were distributed 
among the several villages, as concubines or slaves 
to the Iroquois warriors. Of this number were the 
narrator and her companion, who, being ordered to 
accompany a war-party and carry their provisions, 
escaped at night into the forest, and reached Three 
Kivers, as we have seen. 

1 The diabolical practices described above were not peculiar to the 
Iroquois. Tiie Neutrals and other kindred tribes were no whit less cruel. 
It is a remark of Mr. Gallatin, and I think a just one, tliat the Indians 
west of the Mississippi are less ferocious tlian those east of it. The burn- 
ing of prisoners is rare among the prairie tribes, but is not unknown. An 
Ogillallah chief, in whose lodge I lived for several weeks in 1846, 
described to- me, with most expressive pantomime, how he had captured 
»'_nd burned a warrior of the Snake Tribe, in a valley of the Medicine Bow 
Mountains, near which we were then encamped. 



1614.] BKESSANI'S JOUENEY. 251 

While the Indian allies of the French were wast- 
ing away beneath this atrocious warfare, the French 
themselves, and especially the travelling Jesuits, 
had their full share of the infliction. In truth, the 
puny and sickly colony seemed in the gasps of 
dissolution. The beginning of spring, particularly, 
was a season of terror and suspense ; for with the 
breaking up of the ice, sure as a destiny, came the 
Iroquois. As soon as a canoe could float, they 
were on the war-path ; and with the cry of the re- 
turning wild-fowl mingled the yell of these human 
tigers. They did not always wait for the breaking 
ice, but set forth on foot, and, when they came to 
open water, made canoes and embarked. 

Well might Father Vimont call the Iroquois 
'the scourge of this infant church." They burned, 
h acked, and devoured the neophytes ; exterminated 
whole villages at once ; destroyed the nations whom 
the Fathers hoped to convert; and ruined that 
sure ally of the missions, the fur-trade. Not the 
most hideous nightmare of a fevered brain could 
transcend in horror the real and waking perils 
with which they beset the path of these intrepid 
priests. 

In the spring of 1644, Joseph Bressani, an Ital- 
ian Jesuit, born in Rome, and now for two years 
past a missionary in Canada, was ordered by his 
Superior to go up to the Hurons. It was so early 
in the season that there seemed hope that he might 
pass in safety ; and as the Fathers in that wild 
mission had received no succor for three 5ears, 
Bressani was charged with letters to them, and such 



252 



BRESSANI. 



[1644. 



necessaries for their use as he was able to carry. 
With him were six young Hurons, lately converted, 
and a French boy in his service. The party were 
in three small canoes. Before setting out they all 
confessed and prepared for death. 

They left Three Rivers on the twenty-seventh of 
April, and found ice still floating in the river, and 
patches of snow lying in the naked forests. On 
the first day, one of the canoes overset, nearly 
di'owning Bressani, who could not swim. On the 
third day, a snow-storm began, arid greatly retarded 
then- progress. The young Indians foolishly fired 
their guns at the wild-fowl on the river, and the 
sound reached the ears of a war-party of Iroquois, 
one of ten that had already set forth for the St. 
Lawrence, the Ottawa, and the Huron towns.^ 
Hence it befell, that, as they crossed the mouth of 
a small stream entering the St. Lawrence, twenty- 
seven Iroquois suddenly issued from behind a point, 
and attacked them in canoes. One of the Plurons 
was killed, and all the rest of the party captured 
without resistance. 

On the fifteenth of July following, Bressani 
wrote from the Iroquois country to the General of 
the Jesuits at Rome : — "I do not know if your 
Paternity will recognize the handwriting of one 
whom you once knew very well. The letter is 
soiled and ill- written; because the writer has only 
one finger of his right hand left entire, and cannot 
prevent the blood from his wounds, which are 
Btill open, from staining the paper. His ink is 

1 Vimont, Relation, 1644, 41. 



1644.] BRESSANI AMONG THE IROQUOIS. 253 

gunpowder mixed with water, and his table is the 
earth." ^ 

Then follows a modest narrative of what he en- 
dured at the hands of his captors. First they 
thanked the Sun for their victory ; then plundered 
the canoes ; then cut up, roasted, and devoured the 
slain Huron before the eyes of the prisoners. On 
the next day they crossed to the southern shore, 
and ascended the River Richelieu as far as the 
rapids of Chambly, whence they pursued their 
march on foot among the brambles, rocks, and 
swamps of the trackless forest. When they reached 
Lake Champlain, they made new canoes and re- 
embarked, landed at its southern extremity six 
days afterwards, and thence made for the Upper 
Hudson. Here they found a fishing camp of four 
hundred Iroquois, and now Bressani's torments 
began in earnest. They split his hand w^ith a 
knife, between the little finger and the ring finger ; 
then beat him with sticks, till he was covered with 
blood ; and afterwards placed him on one of their 
torture-scaffolds of bark, as a spectacle to the 
crowd. Here they stripped him, and while he 
shivered with cold from head to foot, they forced 
him to sing. After about two hours they gave 
him up to the children, who ordered him to dance, 
at the same time thrusting sharpened sticks into his 

1 This letter is printed anonymously in the Second Part, Chap. II , 
of Bressani's Relation Ahr^gee. A comparison with Vimont's account, in 
the Relation of 1644, makes its authorship apparent. Vimont's narratiye 
agrees in all essential points. His informant was " vne personne digne 
de foy, qui a este tesmoin oculaire de tout ce qu'il a souffert pendant sa 
captiuite." — Vimont, Relation, 1644, 43. 

22 



254 



BRESSANI. 



Ilb44. 



flesh, and pulling out his hair and beard. " Sing ! " 
cried one ; " Hold your tongue ! " screamed an- 
other ; and if he obeyed the first, the second burned 
him. " We will burn you to death ; we will eat 
you." " I will eat one of your hands." " And I 
will eat one of your feet." ^ These scenes were 
renewed every night for a week. Every evening 
a chief cried aloud through the camp, " Come, 
my children, come and caress our prisoners ! " — 
and the savage crew thronged jubilant to a large 
hut, where the captives lay. They stripped off the 
torn fragment of a cassock, which was the priest's 
only garment ; burned him with live coals and red- 
hot stones ; forced him to walk on hot cinders ; 
burned off now a finger-nail and now the joint of a 
finger, — rarely more than one at a time, however, 
for they economized their pleasures, and reserved 
the rest for another day. This torture was pro 
tracted till one or two o'clock, after which they left 
him on the ground, fast bound to four stakes, and 
covered only with a scanty fragment of deer-skin.* 

1 " lis me re'petaient sans cesse : Nous te brulerons ; nous te mange- 
rons; — je te mangerai un pied; — et moi, une main," etc. — Bressani, in 
Relation Abre'ije'e, 137. 

2 " Chaque nuit apres m'avoir fait clianter, et m'avoir tourmente 
comme ie I'ai dit, ils passaient environ un quart d'lieure a me briiler un 
ongle ou un doigt. II ne m'en reste maintenant qu'un seul entier. -et 
encore ils en ont arrache' I'ongle avec les dents. Un soir ils m'enlevaient 
un ongle, le lendeniain la premieri» phalange, le jour suivant la seconde 
En six fois, ils en brulerent presque six. Aux mains seules, ils m'ont 
applique' le feu et le fer plus de 18 fois, et i'etais oblige de chanter pendant 
ce supplice. lis ne cessaient de me tourmenter qu'a une ou deux lieures 
de la nuit." — Bressani, Relation Abre'ije'e, 122. 

Bressani speaks in another passage of tortures of a nature j'et more 
excruciating. They were similar to those alluded to by the anonymous 
author of the Relation of 1660 : " le ferois rougir ce papier, et les oreilles 



1644.] ESCAPE OF BRESSAi^I. 255 

The other prisoners had their share of torture ; but 
the worst fell upon the Jesuit, as the chief man of 
the party. The unhappy boy who attended him, 
though only twelve or thu'teen years old, was tor- 
mented before his eyes with a pitiless ferocity. 

At length they left this encampment, and, after a 
march of several days, — during which Bressani, in 
wading a rocky stream, fell from exhaustion and was 
nearly drowned, — they reached an Iroquois town. 
It is needless to follow the revolting details of the 
new torments that succeeded. They hung him by 
the feet with chains ; placed food for their dogs on 
his naked body, that they might lacerate him as they 
ate ; and at last had reduced his emaciated frame 
to such a condition, that even they themselves 
stood in horror of him. " I could not have be 
lieved," he writes to his Superior, " that a man was 
so hard to kill." He found among them those 
who, from compassion, or from a refinement of ■ 
cruelty, fed him, for he could not feed himself, j 
They told him jestingly that they wished to fatten 
him before putting him to death. 

The council that was to decide his fate met on 
the nineteenth of June, when, to the prisoner's 
amazement, and, as it seemed, to their own surprise, 
they resolved to spare his life. He was given, with 
due ceremony, to an old woman, to take the place 
of a deceased relative ; but, since he was as repul- 
sive, m his mangled condition, as, by the Indian 

fremiroient, si ie rapportois les horribles traitemens que les Agnieron- 
nons" (t/ie Mohawk nation of the Iroquois) "ont faits sur quelques captil's." 
He aJds, that past ages have never heard of such. .— Relation, 1660, 7, 8. 



256 



BRESSAOT. 



[1644. 



standard, he was useless, she sent her son with him 
to Fort Orange, to sell him to the Dutch. With 
the same humanity which they had shown in the 
case of Jogues, they gave a generous ransom for 
him, supplied him with clothing, kept him till his 
strength was in some degree recruited, and then 
placed him on board a vessel bound for Rochelle. 
Here he arrived on the fifteenth of November ; and 
in the following spring, maimed and disfigured, but 
with health restored, embarked to dare again the 
knives and firebrands of the Iroquois.^ 

It should be noticed, in justice to the Iroquois, 
that, ferocious and cruel as past all denial they were, 
they were not so bereft of- the instincts of human- 
it)- as at first sight might appear. An inexorable 
severity towards enemies was a very essential ele- 
ment, in their savage conception, of the character 
of the warrior. Pity was a cowardly weakness, at 
which their pride revolted. This, joined to their 
thirst for applause and then* dread of ridicule, made 
them smother every movement of compassion,^ and 

1 Immediately on his return to Canada he was ordered to set out 
again for the Hurons. More fortunate than on his first attempt, he 
arrived safely, early in the autumn of 1645. — Ragueneau, Relation des 
Hurons, 1646, 73. 

On Bressani, besides the authorities cited, see Du Creux, Hisioiia 
Canadensis, 399-403 ; Juchereau, Histoire de I' Hutel-Dieu, 53 ; and Mar- 
tin, Bioqraphie da P. Frangois-Joseph Bressani, prefixed to the Relation 
Abr€gee. 

He made no converts while a prisoner, but he baptized a Huron cate- 
chumen at the stake, to the great fury of the surrounding Iroquois. He 
has left, besides his letters, some interesting notes on his captivity, pre- 
served in the Relation Abre';/e'e. 

2 Thus, when Bressani, tortured by the tightness of the cords that 
bound him, asked an Indian to loosen them, he would reply by mockery, 
if others were present ; but if no one saw him, he usually compiled. 



16i6.] DE NOUE'S JOURNEY. 257 

conspired with their native fierceness to form a 
character of unrelenting cruelty rarely equalled. 

The perils which beset the missionaries did not 
spring from the fury of the Iroquois alone, for Na- 
ture herself was armed with terror in this stern 
wilderness of New France. On the thirtieth of 
January, 1646, Father Anne de Noue set out from 
Three Rivers to go to the fort built by the French 
at the mouth of the River Richelieu, where he was 
to say mass and hear confessions. De Noue was 
sixty-three years old, and had come to Canada in 
1625.^ As an indifferent memory disabled him 
from mastering the Indian languages, he devoted 
himself to the spiritual charge of the French, and 
of the Indians about the forts, within reach of an 
interpreter. For the rest, he attended the sick, and, 
in times of scarcity, fished in the river or dug roots 
in the woods for the subsistence of his flock. In 
short, though sprung from a noble family of Charti- 
pagne, he shrank from no toil, however humble, 
to which his idea of duty or his vow of obedience 
called him.^ 

The old missionary had for companions two sol- 
diers and a Huron Indian. They were all on 
snow-shoes, and the soldiers dragged then' baggage 
on small sledges. Their highway was the St. Law- 
rence, transformed to solid ice, and buried, like all 
the country, beneath two or three feet of snow, 

1 See "Pioneers of France," 393. 

'^ He was peculiarly sensitive as regarded tlie cardinal Jesuit virtue 
of obedience ; and both Lalemant and Bressani say, that, at the age of 
sixty and upwards, he was sometimes seen in tears, when he imagined 
that he had not fulfilled to the utmost the commands of his Superior. 
. 22* 



258 DE NOUE. [1646. 

wliich, far and near, glared dazzling white under 
the clear winter sun. Before night they had 
walked eighteen miles, and the soldiers, unused to 
snow-shoes, were greatly fatigued. They made 
their camp in the forest, oil the shore of the great 
expansion of the St. Lawrence called the Lake of 
St. Peter, — dug away the snow, heaped it around 
the spot as a barrier against the wind, made their 
fii'e on the frozen earth in the midst, and lay down 
to sleep. At two o'clock in the morning De None 
awoke. The moon shone like daylight over the 
vast white desert of the frozen lake, with its bor- 
dering fir-trees bowed to the ground with snow ; 
and the kindly thought struck the Father, that he 
might ease his companions by going in advance to 
Fort E-ichelieu, and sending back men to aid them 
in dragging their sledges. He knew the way well. 
He directed them to follow the tracks of his snow- 
shoes in the morning; and, not doubting to reach 
the fort before night, left behind his blanket and 
his flint and steel. For provisions, he put a mor- 
sel of bread and five or six prunes in his pocket, 
told his rosary, and set forth. 

Before dawn the weather changed. The air 
thickened, clouds hid the moon, and a snow-storm 
set in. The traveller was in utter darkness. He 
lost the points of the compass, wandered far out on 
the lake, and when day appeared could' see nothing 
but the snow beneath his feet, and the myriads of 
falling flakes that encompassed him like a curtain, 
impervious to the sight. Still he toiled on, winding 
hither and thither, and at times unwittingly circling 



1646.] SEAECH FOR DE NOUE. 259 

back on his own footsteps. At night he dug a hole 
in the snow under the shore of an island, and lay 
down, without fire, food, or blanket. 

Meanwhile the two soldiers and the Indian, un- 
able to trace his footprints, which the snow had 
hidden, pursued their way for the fort ; but the 
Indian was ignorant of the country, and the 
Frenchmen were unskilled. They wandered from 
their course, and at evening encamped on the 
shore of the island of St. Ignace, at no great dis- 
tance from De None. Here the Indian, trusting 
to his instinct, left them and set forth alone in 
search of their destination, which he soon sue 
ceeded in finding. The palisades of the feeble 
little fort, and the rude buildings within, were 
whitened with snow, and half buried in it. Here, 
amid the desolation, a handful of men kept watch 
and ward against the Iroquois. Seated by the 
blazing logs, the Indian asked for De None, and, 
to his astonishment, the soldiers of the garrison 
told him that he had not been seen. The captain 
of the post was called ; all was anxiety ; but nothhig 
could be done that night. 

At daybreak parties went out to search. The 
two soldiers were readily found ; but they looked 
in vain for the missionary. All day they were 
ranging the ice, firing then* guns and shouting; but 
to no avail, and they returned disconsolate. There 
was a converted Indian, whom the French called 
Charles, at the fort, one oif four who were spending 
the winter there. On the next morning, the second 
of February, he .and one of his companions, together 



560 DE NOUE. [1646. 

with Baron, a French soldier, resumed the search; 
and, guided by the shght depressions in the snow 
which had fallen on the wanderer's footprints, the 
quick-eyed savages traced him through all his 
windings, found his camp by the shore of the 
island, and thence followed him beyond the fort. 
He had passed near without discovering it, — per- 
haps weakness had dimmed his sight, — stopped to 
rest at a point a league above, and thence made his 
way about three leagues farther. Here they found 
him. He had dug a circular excavation in the 
snow, and was kneeling in it on the earth. His 
head was bare, his eyes open and turned upwards, 
and his hands clasped on his breast. His hat and 
his snow-shoes lay at his side. The body was 
leaning slightly forward, resting against the bank 
of snow before it, and frozen to the hardness of 
marble. 

Thus, in an act of kindness and charity, died the 
first martyr of the Canadian mission.^ 

1 Lalemant, Relation, 1646, 9 ; Marie de I'lncarnation, Lettre, 10 Sept., 
1646 ; Bressani, Relation Abr€y€e, 175. 

One of the Indians who found the body of De Noue was killed by the 
Iroquois at Ossossane', in the Huron country, tliree years after. He 
received the death-blow in a posture like that in which he had seen the 
dead missionary. His body was found with the hands still clasped on 
the breast. — Lettre de Chaumoimt a Lalemant, 1 Juin, 1649. 

The next death among the Jesuits was that of Masse, who died at 
Sillery, on the twelfth of May of this year, 1646, at the age of seventy- 
two. He had come with Biard to Acadia as early as 1611. (See "Pio- 
neers of France," 2G2.) Lalemant, in the Relation of 1646, gives an 
account of him, and speaks of penances which he imposed on himself, 
some of which are to the last degree disgusting. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

1642-1644. 
VILLEMARIE. 

Infancy op Montreal. — The Flood. — Vow of Maisonneutja.— 
Pilgrimage. — D'Ailleboust. — The Hotel-Dieu. — Piett, — 
Propagandism. — War. — Hurons and Iroquois. — Dogs. — 
Sally of the French. — Battle. — Exploit of Maison- 

NEUVE. 

Let us now ascend to the island of Montreal. 
Here, as we have seen, an association of devout 
and zealous persons had essayed to found a mission- 
colony under the protection of the Holy Virgin; 
and we left the adventui-ers, after their landing, 
bivouacked on the shore, on an evening in May. 
There was an altar in the open air, decorated with 
a taste that betokened no less of good nurture than 
of piety ; and around it clustered the tents that 
sheltered the commandant, Maisonneuve, the two 
ladies; Madame de la Peltrie and Mademoiselle 
Mance, and the soldiers and laborers of the expe- 
dition. 

In the morning they all fell to their work, Mai- 
sonneuve hewing down the first tree, — and labored 
with such good-will, that their tents were soon 

[261] 



262 VrLLEMARIE. [1642. 

inclosed with a sti'ong palisade, and their altar 
covered by a provisional chapel, built, in the Hu- 
ron mode, of bark. Soon afterward, their canvas 
habitations were supplanted by solid structures of 
wood, and the feeble germ of a future city began 
to take root. 

The Iroquois had not yet found them out ; nor 
did they discover them till they had had ample time 
to fortify themselves. Meanwhile, on a Sunday, 
they would stroll at their leisure over the adjacent 
meadow and in the shade of the bordering forest, 
w^here, as the old chronicler tells us, the grass was 
gay with wild-flowers, and the branches with the 
flutter and song of many strange birds. ^ 

The day of the Assumption of the Vhgin was 
celebrated with befittmg solemnity. There was 
mass in their bark chapel ; then a Te Deum ; then 
public instruction of certain Indians who chanced 
to be at Montreal ; then a procession of all the 
colonists after vespers, to the admu'ation of the 
redskmned beholders. Cannon, too, were fired, in 
honor of then- celestial patroness. " Theh thunder 
made all the island echo," writes Father Vimont; 
" and the demons, though used to thunderbolts, 
were scared at a noise which told them of the love 
we bear our great Mistress ; and I have scarcely 
any doubt that the tutelary angels of the savages 
of New France have marked this day in the calen- 
dar of Paradise." ^ 

1 Dollier de Casson, MS. 

2 Vimont, Relation, 1642, 38. Compare Le Clerc, Premier Etahliss&- 
tnent de la Foy, II. 51. 



1643.] PILGRIMAGE. 263 

The summer passed prosperously, but with the 
winter their faith was put to a rude test. In 
December, there was a rise of the St. Lawrence, 
threatening to sweep away in a night the results 
of all their labor. They fell to their prayers ; and 
Maisonneuve planted a wooden cross in face of the 
advancing deluge, first making a vow, that, should 
the peril be averted, he, Maisonneuve, would bear 
another cross on his shoulders up the neighbor- 
ing mountain, and place it on the summit. The 
vow seemed in vain. The flood still rose, filled 
the fort ditch, swept the foot of the palisade, and 
threatened to sap the magazine ; but here it stopped, 
and presently began to recede, till at length it had 
withdrawn within its lawful channel, and Ville marie 
was safe.^ 

Now it remained to fulfil the promise from which 
such happy results had proceeded. Maisonneuve 
set his men at work to clear a path through the 
forest to the top of the mountain. A large cross 
was made, and solemnly blessed by the priest; then, 
on the sixth of January, the Jesuit Du Peron led 
the way, followed in procession by Madame de la 
Peltrie, the artisans, and soldiers, to the destined 
spot. The commandant, who with all the ceremo- 
nies of the Church had been declared First Soldier 
of the Cross, walked behind the rest, bearing on 
his shoulder a cross so heavy that it needed his 
utmost strength to climb the steep and rugged 

1 A little MS. map in M. Jacques Viger's copy of Ze Petit Registre di 
la Cure de Montreal, lays down the position and shape of the foi't at this 
time, and shows tht spot where Maisonneuve planted the cross. 



264 



VILLEMAEIE. 



[1643. 



path. They planted it on the highest crest, and 
all knelt in adoration before it. Du Peron said 
mass ; and Madame de la Peltrie, always romantic 
and always devout, received the sacrament on the 
mountain-top, a spectacle to the virgin world out- 
stretched below. Sundry relics of saints had been 
set in the wood of the cross, which remained an 
object of pilgrimage to the pious colonists of 
Villemarie.^ 

Peace and harmony reigned within the little fort ; 
and so edifying was the demeanor of the colonists, 
so faithful were they to the confessional, and so 
constant at mass, that a chronicler of the day ex- 
claims, in a burst of enthusiasm, that the deserts 
lately a resort of demons were now the abode of 
angels.^ The two Jesuits who for the time were 
then* pastors had them well in hand. They dwelt 
under the same roof with most of their flock, who 
lived in community, in one large house, and vied 
with each other in zeal for the honor of the Virgin 
and the conversion of the Indians. 

At the end of August, 1643, a vessel arrived at 
Villemarie with a reinforcement commanded by 
Louis d'Ailleboust de C oulonges, a pious gentleman 
of Champagne, and one of the Associates of Mont- 
real.^ Some years before, he had asked in wedlock 
the hand of Barbe de Boulogne ; but the young 
lady had, when a child, in the ardor of her piety, 
taken a vow of perpetual chastity. By the advice 



1 Vimont, Relation, 1643, 52. 53. 

2 Ve'ritables Motifs, cited by Faillon, I. 453, 454. 
8 Chaulmer, 101 ; Jucliereau, 91. 



J643.] SUCCORS. 265 

of her Jesuit confessor, she accepted his suit, on 
condition that she should preserve, to the hour of 
her death, the state to which Holy Church has 
always ascribed a peculiar merit.^ D'Ailleboust 
married her ; and when, soon after, he conceived 
the purpose of devoting his life to the work of the 
Faith in Canada, he invited his maiden spouse to 
go with him. She refused, and forbade him to 
mention the subject again. Her health was indif- 
ferent, and about this time she fell ill. As a last 
resort, she made a promise to God, that, if He 
would restore her, she would go to Canada with 
her husband ; and forthwith her maladies ceased. 
Still her reluctance continued ; she hesitated, and 
then refused again, when an inward light revealed 
to her that it was her duty to cast her lot in 
the wilderness. She accordingly embarked with 
d'Ailleboust, accompanied by her sister. Mademoi- 
selle Philippine de Boulogne, who had caught the 
contagion of her zeal. The presence of these 
damsels would, to all appearance, be rather a bur- 
den than a profit to the colonists, beset as they 
then were by Indians, and often in peril of star- 
vation ; but the spectacle of their ardor, as disin- 
terested as it was extravagant, would serve to exalt 
the religious enthusiasm in which alone was the 
life of Villemarie. 

Then* vessel passed in safety the Iroquois who 



^ Juchereau, Histoire de I'Hotel-Dieu de Quebec, 276. The confessor 
told D'Ailleboust, that, if he persuaded his wife to break her vow of con- 
tinence, " God would chastise him terribly." The nun historian adds, 
that, undeterred by the menace, he iried and failed. 

23 



266 VILLEMARIE. [164S. 

watclied the St. Lawrence, and its arrival filled 
the colonists with joy., D'Ailleboust was a skilful 
soldier, specially versed in the arts of fortification; 
and, under his direction, the frail palisades which 
formed their sole defence were replaced by solid 
ramparts and bastions of earth.. He brought news 
that the "unknown benefactress," as a certain gen- 
erous member of the Association of Montreal was 
called, in ignorance of her name, had given funds, 
to the amount, as afterwards appeared, of forty-two 
thousand livres, for the building of a hospital at 
Villemarie.^ The source of the gift was kept se- 
cret, from a religious motive ; but it soon became 
known that it proceeded from Madame de Bul- 
lion, a lady whose rank and Avealth were exceeded 
only by her devotion. It is true that the hospital 
was not wanted, as no one was sick at Villemarie, 
and one or two chambers would have sufficed for 
every prospective necessity; but it will be remem- 
bered that the colony had been established in order 
that a hospital might be built, and Madame de 
Bullion would not hear to any other application 
of her money. ^ Instead, therefore, of tilling the 
land to supply their own pressing needs, all the 
laborers of the settlement were set at this pious, 
though superfluous, task.^ There was no room in 

1 Archives du Seminaire de Villemarie, cited by Faillon, I. 466. Tlie 
amount of tlie gift was not declared until the next year. 

2 Mademoisello ]Ma".ce wrote to her, to urge that the money should be 
devoted to the Huron .iiission; but she absolutely refused. — Dollier de 
Casson, MS. 

3 Journal des Sup^rieurs des J^suites, MS. 

The hospital was sixty feet long and twenty-four feet wide, with a 
kitchen, a chamber for Mademoiselle Mance, others for servants, and two 



1643.] MORE PILGRIMAGES. 267 

the fort, which, moreover, was in danger of inun- 
dation ; and the hospital was accordingly built on 
higher ground adjacent. To leave it unprotected 
would be to abandon its inmates to the Iroquois ; it 
was therefore surrounded by a strong palisade, and, 
in time of danger, a part of the garrison was de- 
tailed to defend it. Here Mademoiselle Mance took 
up^her abode, and waited the day when wounds or 
disease should bring patients to her empty wards. 

Dauversiere, who had first conceived this plan 
of a hospital in the wilderness, was a senseless 
enthusiast, who rejected as a sin every protest of 
reason against the dreams which governed him ; 
yet one rational and practical element entered into 
the motives of those who carried the plan into exe- 
cution. The hospital was intended not only to 
nurse sick Frenchmen, but to nurse and convert 
sick Indians ; in other words, it was an engine of 
the mission. 

From Maisonneuve to the humblest laborer, these 
zealous colonists were bent on the work of convei 
sion. To that end, the ladies made pilgrimages to 
the cross on the mountain, sometimes for nine days 
in succession, to pray God to gather the heathen 
into His fold. The fatigue was great ; nor was 
the danger less; and armed men always escorted 
them, as a precaution against the Iroquois.^ The 

large apartments for the patients. It was amply provided with furni- 
ture, linen, medicines, and all necessaries ; and had also two oxen, three 
cows, and twenty sheep. A small oratory of stone was built adjoining it. 
The inclosure was four arpents in extent. — Archives du Seminaire de Ville- 
marie, cited by Faillon. 

1 Morin, Annales de VHotel-Dieu de St. Joseph, MS., cited by Faillon, 
I. 457. 



268 7ILLEMAEIE. [1643-45. 

male colonists were equally fervent ; and sometimes 
as many as fifteen or sixteen persons would kneel 
at once before the cross, with the same charitable 
petition.^ The ardor of their zeal may be inferred 
from the fact, that these pious expeditions consumed 
the greater part of the day, when time and labor 
were of a value past reckoning to the little colony. 
Besides then- pilgrimages, they used other means 
and very efficient ones, to attract and gain over the 
Indians. They housed, fed, and clothed them at 
every opportunity ; and though they were subsist- 
ing chiefly on provisions brought at great cost from 
France, there was always a portion for the hungry 
savages who from time to time encamped near their 
fort. If they could persuade any of them to be 
nursed, they were consigned to the tender care of 
Mademoiselle Mance ; and if a party went to war, 
their women and children were taken in charge till 
their return. As this attention to their bodies had 
for its object the profit of their souls, it was ac- 
companied with incessant catechizing. This, with 
the other influences of the place, had its eflfect; 
and some notable conversions were made. Among 
them was that of the renowned chief, Tessouat, 
or Le Borgne, as the French called him, — a crafty 
and intractable savage, whom, to their own sur- 
prise, they succeeded in taming and winning to the 
Faith.^ He was christened with the name of Paul, 

1 Marguerite Bourgeoys, JScrits Autographes, MS., extracts in Faillon, 
I. 458. 

2 Vimont, Relation, 1643, 54, 55. Tessouat was chief of AUumetie 
Island, in the Ottawa. His predecessor, of the same name, was Cliam- 
plain's host in 1613. — See " Pioneers of France," Chap. XII. 



1643-45.] HURONS AND IROQUOIS. 269 

and his squaw with that of Madeleine. Maison- 
neuve rewarded him with a gun, and celebrated 
the day by a feast to all the Indians present.^ 

The French hoped to form an agricultural settle- 
ment of Indians in the neighborhood of Villemarie ; 
and they spared no exertion to this end, giving 
them tools, and aiding them to till the fields. They 
might have succeeded, but for that pest of the wil- 
derness, the Iroquois, who hovered about them, 
harassed them with petty attacks, and again and 
again drove the Algonquins in terror from their 
camps. Some time had elapsed, as we have seen, 
before the Iroquois discovered Villemarie ; but at 
length ten fugitive Algonquins, chased by a party 
of them, made for the friendly settlement as a safe 
asylum; and thus their astonished pursuers became 
aware of its existence. They reconnoitred the 
place, and went back to their towns with the news.^ 
From that time forth the colonists had no peace; 
no more excursions for fishing and hunting ; no more 
Sunday strolls in woods and meadows. The men 
went armed to theu' work, and returned at the 
sound of a bell, marching in a compact body, pre- 
pared for an attack. 

Early in June, 1643, sixty Hurons came down 
in canoes for traflac, and, on reaching the place 
now called Lachine, at the head of the rapids of 

1 It was the usual practice to give guns to converts, "pour attirer 
leur compatriotes a la Foy." They were never given to heathen Indians. 
"It seems," observes Vimont, " tliat our Lord wishes to make use of this 
method in order that Cliristianity may become acceptable in tliis coun- 
try/' — Relation, 1643, 71. 

2 Dollier de Casson, MS. 

23* 



270 VILLEMARIE. [1644 

St. Louis, and a few miles above Villemarie, they 
were amazed at finding a large Iroquois war-party 
in a fort hastily built of the trunks and boughs of 
trees. Surprise and fright seem to have infatuated 
tlicm. They neither fought nor fled, but greeted 
then* inveterate foes as if they were friends and 
allies, and, to gain their good graces, told them all 
tliey knew of the French settlement, urging them 
to attack it, and promising an easy victory. Accor- 
dingly, the Iroquois detached forty of their war- 
riors, who surprised six Frenchmen at work hewing 
timber within a gunshot of the fort, killed three 
of them, took the remaining three prisoners, and 
returned in triumph. The captives were bound 
with the usual rigor ; and the Hurons taunted and 
insulted them, to please their dangerous compan- 
ions. Their baseness availed them little ; for at 
night, after a feast of victory, when the Hurons 
were asleep or off their guard, their entertainers 
fell upon them, and killed or captured the greater 
part. The rest ran for Villemarie, where, as their 
treachery was as yet unknown, they were received 
with great kindness.^ 

The next morning the Iroquois decamped, car- 
rying with them their prisoners, and the furs plun- 

- 1 liave followed Dollier de Casson. Vimont's account is different. 
lie says that tlie Iroquois fell upon the Hurons at the outset, and took 
twenty -three j)risoners, killing many others ; after which they made the 
attack at Villemarie. — Relufion, 1G43, 62. 

Faillon thinks that Viniont was unwilling to publish the treachery of 
the Hurons, lest the interests of the Huron mission should suffer in conse- 
quence. 

Belmont, Uistoire du Canada, 1643, confirms the account of the Huron 
treachery. 



1644.] PILOT AND HER BROOD. 271 

dered from the Huron canoes. They had taken 
also, and probably destroyed, all the letters from 
the missionaries in the Huron country, as well 
as a copy of their Relation of the preceding year. 
Of the three French prisoners, one escaped and 
reached Montreal ; the remainmg two were burned 
alive. 

At Villemarie it was usually dangerous to pass 
beyond the ditch of the fort or the palisades of the 
hospital. Sometimes a solitary warrior would lie 
hidden for days, without sleep and almost without 
food, behind a log in the forest, or in a dense 
thicket, watching like a lynx for some rash strag- 
gler. Sometimes parties of a hundred or more 
made ambuscades near by, and sent a few of their 
number to lure out the soldiers by a petty attack 
and a flight. The danger was much diminished, 
however, when the colonists received from France 
a number of dogs, which proved most efficient sen- 
tinels and scouts. Of the instinct of these animals 
the writers of the time speak with astonishment. 
Chief among them was a bitch named Pilot, Avho 
every morning made the rounds of the forests and 
fields about the fort, followed by a troop of her 
oifspring. If one of them lagged behind, she bit 
him to remind him of his duty; and if any skulked 
and ran home, she punished them severely in the 
same manner on her return. When she discovered 
the Iroquois, which she was sure to do by the scent, 
if any were near, she barked furiously, and ran at 
once straight to the fort, followed by the rest. The 
Jesuit chronicler adds, with an amusing naivete^ 



272 '^ VILLEMARIE. 11644. 

that, while this was her duty, " her natural inclina- 
tion was for hunting squirrels."^ 

Maisonneuve was as brave a knight of the cross 
as ever fought in Palestine for the sepulchre of 
Christ ; but he could temper his valor with discre- 
tion. He knew that he and his soldiers were but 
indifferent woodsmen ; that their crafty foe had no 
equal in ambuscades and surprises ; and that, while 
a defeat might ruin the French, it would only ex- 
asperate an enemy whose resources in .men were 
incomparably greater. Therefore, when the dogs 
sounded the alarm, he kept his followers close, and 
stood patiently on the defensive. They chafed 
under this Fabian policy, and at length imputed it 
to cowardice. Their murmurings grew louder, till 
they reached the ear of Maisonneuve. The relig- 
ion which animated him had not destroyed the 
soldierly pride which takes root so readily and so 
strongly in a manly nature ; and an imputation of 
cowardice from his own soldiers stung him to the 
quick. He saw, too, that such an opinion of him 
must needs Aveaken his authority, and impair the 
discipline essential to the safety of the colony. 

On the morning of the thhtieth of March, 
Pilot was heard barking with unusual fury in the 
forest eastward from the fort ; and in a few mo- 
ments they saw her running over the clearing, 
where the snow was still deep, followed by her 



1 Lalemant, Relation, 1647, 74, 75. " Son attrait naturel estoit la 
chasse aux ecurieux." Dollier de Casson also speaks admiringly of her 
and her instinct. Faillon sees in it a manifest proof of the protecting care 
of God over Villemarie. 



1644.] • BATTLE. 273 

brood, all giving tongue together. The excited 
Frenchmen flocked about their commander. 

''''Monsieur, les ennemis sont dans le hois; ne 
les irons-noics jamais voir f " ^ 

Maisonneuve, habitually composed and calm, 
answered sharply, — 

" Yes, you shall see the enemy. Get your- 
selves ready at once, and take care that you are 
as brave as you profess to be. I shall lead you 
myself." 

All was bustle in the fort. Guns were loaded, 
pouches filled, and snow-shoes tied on by those 
who had them and knew how to use them. There 
■were not enough, however, and many were forced 
to go without them. When all was ready, Maison- 
neuve sallied forth at the head of thirty men, leav- 
ing d'Ailleboust, with the remainder, to hold the 
fort. They crossed the snowy clearing and entered 
the forest, where all was silent as the grave. They 
pushed on, wading through the deep snow, with 
the countless pitfalls hidden beneath it, when sud- 
denly they were greeted with the screeches of 
eighty Iroquois,^ who sprang up from their lurk- 
ing-places, and showered bullets and arrows upon 
the advancing French. The emergency called, not 
for chivalry, but for woodcraft; and Maisonneuve 
ordered his men to take shelter, like their assail- 
ants., behind trees. They stood their ground reso- 



1 Dollier de Casson, MS. 

'^ Vimont, Relation, 1644, 42. Dollier de Casson says two hundred ; 
but it is usually safe in these cases to accept the smaller number, and 
Vimont founds his statement on the information of an escaped prisoner. 



274 VILLEMARIE. [1644. 

lutely for a long time ; but the Iroquois pressed 
them close, three of their number were killed, 
others were wounded, and their ammunition began 
to fail. Their only alternatives were destruction or 
retreat ; and to retreat was not easy. The order 
was given. Though steady at first, the men soon 
became confused, and over-eager to escape the 
galling fii-e which the Iroquois sent after them. 
Maisonneuve directed them towards a sledge-track 
which had been used in dragging timber for build- 
ing the hospital, and where the snow was firm be- 
neath the foot. He himself remained to the last, 
encouraging his followers and aiding the wounded 
to escape. The French, as they struggled through 
the snow, faced about from time to time, and fired 
back to check the pursuit ; but no sooner had they 
reached the sledge-track than they gave way to 
their terror, and ran in a body for the fort. Those 
within, seeing this confused rush of men from the 
distance, mistook them for the enemy ; and an 
over-zealous soldier touched the match to a cannon 
which had been pointed to rake the sledge-track. 
Had not the piece missed fire, from dampness of 
the priming, he would have done more execution 
at one shot than the Iroquois in all the fight of 
that morning. 

Maisonneuve was left alone, retreating backwards 
down the track, and holding his pursuers in check, 
with a pistol in each hand. They might easily 
have shot him ; but, recognizing him as the com- 
mander of the French, they were bent, on taking 
him alive. Their chief coveted this honor for 



1644.] EXPLOIT OF MAISONNEUVE. 275 

himself, and his followers held aloof to give him 
the opportunity. He pressed close upon Maison- 
neuve, who snapped a pistol at him, which missed 
fire. The Iroquois, who had ducked to avoid the 
shot, rose erect, and sprang forward to seize him, 
when Maisonneuve, with his remaining pistol, shot 
him dead. Then ensued a curious spectacle, not 
infrequent in Indian battles. The Iroquois seemed 
to forget their enemy, in their anxiety to secure 
and carry off the body of their chief; and the 
French commander continued his retreat unmo- 
lested, till he was safe under the cannon of the 
fort. From that day, he was a hero in the eyes of 
his men.^ 

Quebec and Montreal are happy in their found- 
ers. Samuel de Champlain and Chomedey de 
Maisonneuve are among the names that shine with 
a fau' and honest lustre on the infancy of nations. 

^ Dollier de Casson, MS. Vimont's mention of the affair is brief. 
He says tliat two Frenchmen were made prisoners, and burned. Bel- 
mont, Histoire du Canada, 1645, gives a succinct account of the fight, and 
indicates the scene of it. It seems to have been a little below the site of 
the Place d'Avmes, on which stands the great Parish Church of Vilie- 
niarie, commonly known to tourists as the " Cathedral." Faillon thinks 
that Maisonneuve's exploit was achieved on this very spot. 

Marguerite Bourgeoys also describes the afiair in her unpublisheJ 
writiuKs. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

1644, 1645. 

PEACE. 

IbOQUOI3 PkISONERS. — PiSKARET. — HiS EXPLOITS. — MORE PRIS- 
ONERS. — Iroquois Embassy. — The Orator. — The Great 
Council. — Speeches of Kiotsaton. — Muster of Satages. — 
Peace Confirmed. 

In the damp and freshness of a midsummer 
morning, when the sun had not yet risen, but when 
the river and the sky were red with the glory of 
approaching day, the inmates of the fort at Three 
Rivers were roused by a tumult of joyous and 
exultant voices. They thronged to the shore, — 
priests, soldiers, traders, and officers, mingled with 
warriors and shrill-voiced squaws from Huron and 
Algonquin camps in the neighboring forest. Close 
at hand they saw twelve or fifteen canoes slowly 
drifting down the current of the St. Lawrence, 
manned by eighty young Indians, all singing their 
songs of victory, and striking their paddles against 
the edges of their bark vessels in cadence with 
their voices. Among them three Iroquois prisoners 
stood upright, singing loud and defiantly, as men 
not fearing torture or death. 

[276] 



1644.] THE IROQUOIS PRISONERS. 277 

A few days before, these young warriors, in part 
Huron and in part Algonquin, had gone out on 
the war-path to the River Richelieu, where they 
had presently found themselves entangled among 
several bands of Iroquois. They withdrew in the 
night, after a battle in the dark with an Iroquois 
canoe, and, as they approached Fort Richelieu, 
had the good fortune to discover ten of their 
enemy ambuscaded in a clump of bushes and fallen 
trees, watching to waylay some of the soldiers on 
their morning visit to the fishing-nets in the river 
hard by. They captured three of them, and car- 
ried them back in triumph. 

The victors landed amid screams of exultation. 
Two of the prisoners were assigned to the Hurons, 
and the third to the Algonquins, who immediately 
took him to their lodges near the fort at Three 
Rivers, and began the usual " caress," by burning 
his feet with red-hot stones, and cutting off his fin- 
gers. Champfleur, the commandant, went out to 
them with urgent remonstrances, and at length pre-^ 
vailed on them to leave their victim without further 
injury, until Montmagny, the Governor, should ar- 
rive. He came with all dispatch, — not wholly from 
a motive of humanity, but partly in the hope that 
the three captives might be made instrumental in 
concluding a peace with theu' countrymen. 

A council was held in the fort at Three Rivers. 
Montmagny made valuable presents to the Algon- 
quins and the Hurons, to induce them to place the 
prisoners in his hands. The Algonquins complied; 
and the unfortunate Iroquois, gashed, maimed, and 

24 



278 PEACE. [1644. 

scorched, was given up to the French, who treated 
him with the greatest kindness. But neither the 
Governor's gifts nor his eloquence could persuade 
the Hurons to follow the example of their allies ; 
and they departed for their own country with their 
two captives, — promising, however, not to burn 
them, but to use them for negotiations of peace. 
With this pledge, scarcely worth the breath that 
uttered it, Montmagny was forced to content him- 
self.^ 

Thus it appeared that the fortune of war did 
not always smile even on the Iroquois. Indeed, 
if there is faith in Indian tradition, there had been 
a time, scarcely half a century past, when the 
Mohawks, perhaps the fiercest and haughtiest of 
the confederate nations, had been nearly destroyed 
by the Algonquins, whom they now held in con- 
tempt.^ This people, whose inferiority arose chiefly 
from the want of that compact organization in 
which lay the strength of the Iroquois, had not 
lost their ancient warlike spirit ; and they had one 
champion of whom even the audacious confeder- 
ates stood in awe. His name was Piskaret; and 
he dwelt on that great island in the Ottawa of 

1 Viraont, Relation, 1644, 45-49. 

2 Relation, 1660, 6 (anonymous). 

Both Perrot and La Potherie recount traditions of the ancient superi- 
ority of tlie Algonquins over the Iroquois, who formerly, it is said, dwelt 
near Montreal and Tliree Rivers, wlience the Algonquins expelled them. 
They withdrew, first to the neighborhood of Lake Erie, then to that of 
Lake Ontario, their historic seat. There is much to support the conjee 
ture tliat tlie Indians found by Cartier at Montreal in 1535 were Iroquois. 
(See " Pioneers of France," 189.) Tliat they belonged to the same family 
of tribes is certain. Eor the traditions alluded to, see Perrot, 9, 12, 79, 
and La Potherie, I. 288-295. 



1644.] EXPLOITS OF PISKARET. 279 

which Le Borgne was chief. He had lately turned 
Christian, in the hope of French favor and counte- 
nance, — always useful to an ambitious Indian, — 
and perhaps, too, with an eye to the gun and pow- 
der-horn which formed the earthly reward of the 
convert.^ Tradition tells marvellous stories of his 
exploits. Once, it is said, he entered an Iroquois 
town on a dark night. His first care was to seek 
out a hiding-place, and he soon found one in the 
midst of a large wood-pile.^ Next he crept into 
a lodge, and, finding the inmates asleep, killed 
them with his war-club, took their scalps, and 
quietly withdrew to the retreat he had prepared. 
In the morning a howl of lamentation and fury 
rose from the astonished villagers. They ranged 
the fields and forests in vain pursuit of the myste- 
rious enemy, who remained all day in the wood 
pile, whence, at midnight, he came forth and 
repeated his former exploit. On the third night, 
every family placed its sentinels ; and Piskaret, 
stealthily creeping from lodge to lodge, and recon- 
noitring each through crevices in the bark, saw 
watchers everywhere. At length he descried a 
sentinel who had fallen asleep near the entrance 
of a lodge, though his companion at the other end 
was still awake and vigilant. He pushed aside 
the sheet of bark that served as a door, struck the 
sleeper a deadly blow, yelled his war-cry, and fled 

1 " Simon Pieskaret . . . n'estoit Chrestien qu'en apparence et par 
police." — Lalemant, Relation, 1647, 68. — He afterwards became a con- 
vert in earnest. 

2 Both the Iroquois and the Hurons collected great quantities of wood 
in their villages in the autumn. 



280 PEACE. [1644. 

like the wind. All the village swarmed out in fu- 
rious chase ; but Piskaret was the swiftest runner 
of his time, and easily kept in advance of his pur- 
suers. When daylight came, he showed himself 
from time to time to lure them on, then yelled 
defiance, and distanced them again. At night, all 
but six had given over the chase ; and even these, 
exhausted as they were, had begun to despair. 
Piskaret, seeing a hollow tree, crept into it like a 
bear, and hid himself; while the Iroquois, losing 
his traces in the dark, lay down to sleep near by. 
At midnight he emerged from his retreat, stealthily 
approached his slumbermg enemies, nimbly brained 
them all with his war-club, and then, burdened with 
a goodly bundle of scalps, journeyed homeward in 
triumph.^ 

This is but one of several stories that tradition 
has preserved of his exploits ; and, with all rea- 
sonable allowances, it is certain that the crafty and 
valiant Algonquin was the model of an Indian 
warrior. That which follows rests on a far safer 
basis. 

Early in the spring of 1645, Piskaret, with 
six other converted Indians, some of them better 
Christians than he, set out on a war-party, and, 
after draggmg their canoes over the frozen St. 
Lawrence, launched them on the open stream of 
the Richelieu. They ascended to Lake Champlain, 



1 This story is told by La Potherie, I. 299, and, more briefly, by Per- 
rot, 1.07. La Potlierie, writing more than half a century after the time in 
question, represents the Iroquois as habitually in awe of tlie Algonquins 
In tliis all the contemporary wi-iters contradict him. 



1645.] THE IROQUOIS DEFEATED. 281 

and hid themselves in the leafless forests of a large 
island, watching patiently for their human prey. 
One day they heard a distant shot. " Come, 
friends," said Piskaret, " let us get our dinner : 
perhaps it will be the last, for we must die before 
we run." Having dined to their contentment, the 
philosophic warriors prepared for action. One of 
them went to reconnoitre, and soon reported that 
two canoes full of Iroquois were approaching the 
island. Piskaiet and his followers crouched in the 
bushes at the point for which the canoes were 
making, and, as the foremost drew near, each 
chose his mark, and fired with such good effect, 
that, of seven warriors, all but one were killed. 
The survivor jumped overboard, and swam for the 
other canoe, where he was taken in. It now 
contained eight Iroquois, who, far from attempting 
to escape, paddled in haste for a distant part of 
the shore, in order to land, give battle, and avenge 
their slain comrades. But the Algon quins, run- 
ning through the woods, reached the landing before 
them, and, as one of them rose to fire, they shot 
him. In his fall he overset the canoe. The water 
was shallow, and the submerged warriors, pres- 
ently finding foothold, waded towards the shore, and 
made desperate fight. The Algonquins had the 
advantage of position, and used it so well, that they 
killed all but three of their enemies, and cap- 
tured two of the survivors. Next they sought out 
the bodies, carefully scalped them, and set out in 
triumph on their return. To the credit of their 
Jesuit teachers, they treated then- prisoners with 

24* 



282 PEACE. [1645. 

a forbearance hitherto without example. One of 
them, who was defiant and abusive, received a 
blow to silence him ; but no further mdignity was 
offered to either.^ 

As the successful warriors approached the little 
mission settlement of Sillery, immediately above 
Quebec, they raised their song of triumph, and 
beat time with their paddles on the edges of their 
canoes ; while, from eleven poles raised aloft, 
eleven fresh scalps fluttered in the wind. The 
Father Jesuit and all his flock were gathered on 
the strand to welcome them. The Indians fu-ed 
their guns, and screeched in jubilation ; one Jean 
Baptiste, a Christian chief of Sillery, made a 
speech from the shore ; Piskaret replied, standing 
upright in his canoe; and, to crown the occasion, a 
squad of soldiers, marching in haste from Quebec, 
fired a salute of musketry, to the boundless delight 
of the Indians. ISIuch to the surprise of the two 
captives, there was no running of the gantlet, no 
gnawing off of finger-nails or cutting off of fingers ; 
but the scalps were hung, like little flags, over the 
entrances of the lodges, and all Sillery betook 
itself to feasting and rejoicing.^ One old woman, 
indeed, came to the Jesuit with a pathetic appeal : 
" Oh, my Father ! let me caress these prisoners a 
little : they have killed, burned, and eaten my 
father, my husband, and my children." But the 



1 According to Marie de I'lncarnatioji, Lettre, 14 Sept., 1645, 1'iskaret 
was for torturing tlie captives ; but a convert, named Bernard by the 
Frencli, protested against it. 

2 Vimcnt, Relation, 1645, 19-21. 



1645.] THE PEACE MESSAGE. 283 

missionary answered with a lecture on the duty of 
forgiveness.^ 

On the next day, Montmagny came to Sillery, 
and there was a grand council in the house of the 
Jesuits. Piskaret, in a solemn harangue, delivered 
his captives to the Governor, who replied with a 
speech of compliment and an ample gift. The 
two Iroquois were present, seated with a seeming 
imperturbability, but great anxiety of heart ; and 
when at length they comprehended that theu' lives 
were safe, one of them, a man of great size and 
symmetry, rose and addressed Montmagny : — 

" Onontio,^ I am saved from the fire ; my body 
is delivered from death. Onontio, you have given 
me my life. I thank you for it. I will never for- 
get it. All my country will be grateful to you. 
The earth will be bright; the river calm and 
smooth ; there will be peace and friendship be- 
tween us. The shadow is before my eyes no longer. 
The spirits of my ancestors slain by the Algonquins 
have disappeared. Onontio, you are good : we are 
bad. But our anger is gone ; I have no heart but 
for peace and rejoicing." As he said this, he began 
to dance, holding his hands upraised, as if apostro- 
phizing the sky. Suddenly he snatched a hatchet, 
brandished it for a moment like a madman, and 
then flung it into the fire, saying, as he did so, 

1 Vimont, Relation, 1645, 21, 22. 

2 Onontio, Great Mountain, a translation of Montmagny's name. It 
was the Iroquois name ever after for the Governor of Canada. In the 
same manner, Onas, Feather or Quill, became the official name of William 
Penn, and all succeeding Governors of Pennsylvania. We have seen that 
the Iroquois hereditary chiefs had official names, which are the same to- 
day that they were at the period of this narrative. 



284 PEACE. [1645. 

" Thus I throw down my anger ! thus I cast away 
the weapons of blood! Farewell, war! Now I 
am your friend forever!"^ 

The two prisoners were allowed to roam at will 
about the settlement, withheld from escaping by 
an Indian point of honor. Montmagny soon after 
sent them to Three Rivers, where the Iroquois 
taken during the last summer had remained all 
winter. Champileur, the commandant, now received 
orders to clothe, equip, and send him home, with 
a message to his nation that Onontio made them a 
present of his life, and that he had still two pris- 
oners in his hands, whom he would also give them, 
if they saw fit to embrace this opportunity of mak- 
ing peace with the French and their Indian allies. 

This was at the end of May. On the fifth of 
July following, the liberated Iroquois reappeared 
at Three Rivers, bringing with him two men of 
renown, ambassadors of the Mohawk nation. There 
was a fourth man of the party, and, as they ap- 
proached, the Frenchmen on the shore recognized, 
to their great delight, Guillaume Couture, the 
young man captured three years before with Father 
Jogues, and long since given up as dead. In dress 
and appearance he was an Iroquois. He had 
gained a great influence over his captors, and this 
embassy of peace was due in good measure to his 
persuasions.^ 

The chief of the Iroquois, Kiotsaton, a tall sav- 

1 Vimont, Relation, 1645, 22, 23. He adds, that, "if these people are 
Darbarous in deed, they have thoughts worthy of Greeks and Romans " 

2 Marie de I'lncarnation, Lettre, 14 Sept., 1645. 



1645.1 THE AMBASSADOR. 285 

age, covered from head to foot with belts of wam- 
pum, stood erect in the prow of the sail-boat which 
had brought him and his companions from Riche- 
lieu, and in a loud voice announced himself as the 
accredited envoy of his nation. The boat fired a 
swivel, the fort replied with a cannon-shot, and the 
envoys landed in state. Kiotsaton and his colleague 
were conducted to the room of the commandant, 
where, seated on the floor, they were regaled 
sumptuously, and presented in due course with 
pipes of tobacco. They had never before seen 
anything so civilized, and were delighted with 
their entertainment. " We are glad to see you," 
said Champfleur to Kiotsaton ; " you may be sure 
that you are safe here. It is as if you were among 
your own people, and in your own house." 

"Tell your chief that he lies," replied the honored 
guest, addressing the interpreter. 

Champfleur, though he probably knew that this 
was but an Indian mode of expressing dissent, 
showed some little surprise ; when Kiotsaton, after 
tranquilly smoking for a moment, proceeded : — 

" Your chief says it is as if I were in my own 
country. This is not true ; for there I am not so 
honored and caressed. He says it is as if I were 
in my own house ; but in my own house I am some- 
times very ill served, and here you feast me with 
all manner of good cheer." From this and many 
other replies, the French conceived that they had 
to do with a man of esprit} 

He undoubtedly belonged to that class of pro- 

1 Vimont, Relation, 1645, 24. 



286 PEACE. [1U5. 

fessed orators who, though rarely or never claiming 
the honors of hereditary chieftainship, had great 
influence among the Iroquois, and were employed 
in all affairs of embassy and negotiation. They 
had memories trained to an astonishing tenacity, 
were perfect in all the conventional metaphors in 
which the language of Indian diplomacy and rheto- 
ric mainly consisted, knew by heart the traditions 
of the nation, and were adepts in the parliamentary 
usages, which, among the Iroquois, were held little 
less than sacred. 

The ambassadors were feasted for a week, not 
only by the French, but also by the Hurons and Al- 
gonquins ; and then the grand peace council took 
place. Montmagny had come up from Quebec, 
and with him the chief men of the colony. It was 
a bright midsummer day ; and the sun beat hot 
upon the parched area of the fort, Avhere awnings 
were spread to shelter the assembly. On one side 
sat Montmagny, with officers and 'others who at- 
tended him. Near him was Vimont, Superior of 
the Mission, and other Jesuits, — Jogues among 
the rest. Immediately before them sat the Iro- 
quois, on sheets of spruce-bark spread on the 
ground like mats : for they had insisted on being 
near the French, as a sign of the extreme love they 
had of late conceived towards them. On the oppo- 
site side of" the area were the Algonquins, in their 
several divisions of the Algonquins proper, the 
Montagnais, and the Atticamegues,^ sitting, lying, 

1 The Atticamegues, or tribe of the White Fish, dwelt in the forests 
north of Three Kivers. They much resembled their Montagnais kindred. 



1645.] SPEECH OF KIOTSATON. 2^ 

t 

or squatting on the ground. On the right hand 
and on the left were Hurons mingled with French- 
men. In the midst was a large open space like 
the arena of a prize-ring ; and here were planted 
two poles with a line stretched from one to the 
other, on which, in due time, were to be hung the 
wampum belts that represented the words of the 
orator. For the present, these belts were in part 
hung about the persons of the two ambassadors, 
and in part stored in a bag carried by one of them. 

When all was ready, Kiotsaton arose, strode into 
the open space, and, raising his tall figure erect, 
stood looking for a moment at the sun. Then he 
gazed around on the assembly, took a wampum belt 
in his hand, and began : — 

" Onontio, give ear. I am the mouth of all my 
nation. When you listen to me, you listen to all 
the Iroquois. There is no evil in my heart. My 
song is a song of peace. We have many war-songs 
in our country ; but we have thrown them all away, 
and now we sing of nothing but gladness and re- 
joicing." 

Hereupon he began to sing, his countrymen 
joining with him. He walked to and fro, gesticu- 
lated towards the sky, and seemed to apostrophize 
the sun ; then, turning towards the Governor, re 
sumed his harangue. Fu'st he thanked him for 
the life of the Iroquois prisoner released in the 
spring, but blamed him for sending him home with- 
out company or escort. Then he led forth the 
young Frenchman, Guillaume Couture, and tied a 
wampum belt to his arm. 



288 PEACE. l1645. 

"With this," he said, " I give you back this pris- 
oner. I did not say to him, ' Nephew, take a canoe 
and go home to Quebec' I should have been with- 
out sense, had I done so. I should have been 
troubled in my heart, lest some evil might befall 
him. The prisoner whom you sent back to us 
Buffered every kind of danger and hardship on the 
way." Here he proceeded to represent the difficul- 
ties of the journey in pantomime, " so natural," says 
Father Vimont, "that no actor in France could 
equal it." He counterfeited the lonely traveller 
toiling up some rocky portage track, with a load of 
baggage on his head, now stoppmg as if half spent, 
And now tripping against a stone. Next he was 
in his canoe, vainly trying to urge it against the 
Bwift current, looking around in despair on the 
foaming rapids, then recovering courage, and pad- 
dling desperately for his life. " What did you 
mean," demanded the orator, resuming his ha- 
rangue, " by sendmg a man alone among these 
dangers ? I have not done so. ' Come, nephew,' 
I said to the prisoner there before you," — pointing 
to Coutiu'e, — "'follow me: I will see you home at 
the risk of my life.'" And to confirm his words, he 
hung another belt on the line. 

The third belt was to declare that the nation of 
the speaker had sent presents to the other nations 
to recall their war-parties, in view of the approach- 
ing peace. The fourth was an assurance that the 
memory of the slain Iroquois no longer stirred the 
living to vengeance. " I passed near the place 
where Piskaret and the Algonquins slew our war- 



1645.] SPEECH OF KiOTSATON. 289 

riors in the spring. I saw the scene of the fight 
where the two prisoners here were taken. I passed 
quickly ; I would not look on the blood of my peo- 
ple. Their bodies lie there still ; I turned away 
my eyes, that I might not be angry." Then, stoop- 
ing, he struck the ground and seemed to listen. 
" I heard the voice of my ancestors, slain by the 
Algonquins, crying to me in a tone of affection, 
' My grandson, my grandson, restrain your anger : 
think no more of us, for you cannot deliver us 
from death ; think of the living ; rescue them from 
the knife and the fire.' When I heard these voices, 
I went on my way, and journeyed hither to deliver 
those whom you still hold in captivity." 

The fifth, sixth, and seventh belts were to open 
the passage by water from the French to the 
Iroquois, to chase hostile canoes from the river, 
smooth away the rapids and cataracts, and calm 
the waves of the lake. The eighth cleared the 
path by. land. " You would have said," writes 
Vimont, " that he was cutting down trees, hacking 
off" branches, dragging away bushes, and filling up 
holes." — " Look ! " exclaimed the orator, when he 
had ended this pantomime, " the road is open, 
smooth, and straight " ; and he bent towards the 
earth, as if to see that no impediment remained. 
" There is no thorn, or stone, or log in the way. 
Now you may see the smoke of our villages from 
Quebec to the heart of our country." 

Another belt, of unusual size and beauty, was 
to bind the Iroquois, the French, and their Indian 
allies together as one man. As he presented it, 

25 



290 PEACE. ilbi5. 

the orator led forth a Frenchman and an Algonquin 
from among his auditors, and, linking his arms with 
theirs, pressed them closely to his sides, in token 
of indissoluble union. 

The next belt invited the French to feast with 
the Iroquois. " Our country is full of fish, "veni- 
son, moose, beaver, and game of every kind. 
Leave these filthy swine that run about among 
your houses, feeding on garbage, and come and 
eat good food Avith us. The road is open; there 
is no danger." 

There was another belt to scatter the clouds, 
that the sun might shine on the hearts of the 
Indians and the French, and reveal their sincerity 
and truth to all ; then others still, to confirm the 
Hurons in thoughts of peace. By the fifteenth 
belt, Kiotsaton declared that the Iroquois had 
always wished to send home Jogues and Bressani 
to theu' friends, and had meant to do so ; but that 
Jogues was stolen from them by the Dutch, and 
they had given Bressani to them because he de- 
sired it. '' If he had but been patient," added the 
ambassador, " I would have brought him back my- 
self. Now I know not what has befallen him. 
Perhaps he is droAvned. Perhaps he is dead." 
Here Jogues said, with a smile, to the Jesuits near 
him, " They had the pile laid to burn me. They 
would have killed me a hundred times, if God had 
not saved my life." 

Two or three more belts were hung on the line, 
each with its appropriate speech ; and then the 
speaker closed his harangue : " I go to spend what 



1645.] VIMONT AND THE AMBASSADORS. 291 

remains of the summer in my own country, in 
games and dances and rejoicing for the blessing of 
peace." He had interspersed his discourse through- 
out with now a song and now a dance ; and the 
council ended in a general dancing, in which 
Iroquois, Hurons, Algonquins, Montagnais, Atti- 
camegues, and French, all took part, after their 
respective fashions. 

In spite of one or two palpable falsehoods that 
embellished his oratory, the Jesuits were delighted 
with him. " Every one admitted," says Vimont, " that 
he was eloquent and pathetic. In short, he showed 
himself an excellent actor, for one who has had 
no instructor but Nature. I gathered only a few 
fragments of his speech from the mouth of the 
interpreter, who gave us but broken portions of it, 
and did not translate consecutively." ^ 

Two days after, another council was called, 
when the Governor gave his answer, accepting 
the proffered peace, and confirming his acceptance 
by gifts of considerable value. He demanded as 
a condition, that the Indian allies of the French 
should be left unmolested, until their principal 
chiefs, who were not then present, should make a 
formal treaty with the Iroquois in behalf of their 
several nations. Piskaret then made a present to 
wipe away the remembrance of the Iroquois he had 
slaughtered, and the assembly was dissolved. 



1 Vimont describes the council at length in the Relation of 1645. 
Marie de I'lncarnation also describes it in a letter to her son, of Sept. 14, 
1645. She evidently gained her information from Vimont and the othei 
Jesuits present. 



292 PEACE. [1646. 

In the evening, Vimont invited the ambassadors 
to the mission-house, and gave each of them a 
sack of tobacco and a pipe. In return, Kiotsaton 
made him a speech : " When I left my country, 
I gave up my life ; I went to meet death, and I 
owe it to you that I am yet alive. I thank you 
that I still see the sun ; I thank you for all your 
words and acts of kindness ; I thank you for your 
gifts. You have covered me with them from head 
to foot. You left nothing free but my mouth ; and 
now you have stopped that with a handsome pipe, 
and regaled it with the taste of the herb we love. 
I bid you farcAvell, — not for a long time, for you 
will hear from us soon. Even if we should be 
drowned on our way home, the winds and the 
waves will bear witness to our countrymen of your 
favors ; and I am sure that some good spirit has 
gone before us to tell them of the good news that 
we are about to bring." ^ 

On the next day, he and his companion set forth 
on thek return. Kiotsaton, when he saw his party 
embarked, turned to the French and Indians who 
lined the shore, and said with a loud voice, " Fare- 
well, brothers ! I am one of your relations now." 
Then turning to the Governor, — " Onontio, your 
name will be great over all the earth. When I 
came hither, I never thought to carry back my 
head, I never thought to come out of yaur doors 
alive ; and now I return loaded with honors, gifts, 
and kindness." " Brothers," — to the Indians, — 
" obey Onontio and the French. Their hearts and 

1 Vimont, Relation, 1645, 28. 



1645.1 MUSTER OF SAVAGES. 293 

their thoughts are good. Be friends with them, 
and do as they do. You shall hear from us soon." 

The Indians whooped and fired their guns ; there 
was a cannon-shot from the fort ; and the sail-boat 
that bore the distinguished visitors moved on its 
way towards the Richelieu. 

But the work was, not done. There must be 
more councils, speeches, wampum-belts, and gifts 
of all kinds, — more feasts, dances, songs, and up- 
roar. The Indians gathered at Three Rivers were 
not sufficient in numbers or in influence to repre- 
sent their several tribes ; and more were on their 
way. The principal men of the Hurons were to 
come down this year, with Algonquins of many 
tribes, from the North and the Northwest; and 
Kiotsaton had promised that Iroquois ambassadors, 
duly empowered, should meet them at Three Rivers, 
and make a solemn peace with them all, under the 
eye of Onontio. But what hope was there that 
this swarm of fickle and wayward savages could be 
gathered together at one time and at one place, — 
or that, being there, they could be restrained from 
cutting each other's throats ? Yet so it was ; and 
in this happy event the Jesuits saw the interposi- 
tion of God, wrought upon by the prayers of those 
pious souls in France who daily and nightly be- 
sieged Heaven with supplications for the welfare 
of the Canadian missions.^ 

First came a band of Montagnais ; next followed 
Nipissings, Atticamegues, and Algonquins of the 
Ottawa, thek canoes deep-laden with furs. Then, 

1 Vimont, Relation, 1645, 29. 
25* 



294 PEACE. [1645. 

on the tenth of September, appeared the great fleet 
of the Hurons, sixty canoes, bearing a host of war- 
riors, among whom the French recognized the 
tattered black cassock of Father Jerome Lalemant. 
There were twenty French soldiers, too, returning 
from the Huron country, whither they had been 
sent the year before, to guard the Fathers and their 
flock. 

Three Rivers swarmed like an ant-hill with sav- 
ages. The shore was lined with canoes ; the 
forests and the fields were alive with busy camps. 
The trade was brisk ; and in its attendant speeches, 
feasts, and dances, there was no respite. 

But where were the Iroquois'? Montmagny and 
the Jesuits grew very anxious. In a few days 
more the concourse would begin to disperse, and 
the golden moment be lost. It was a great relief 
w^hen a canoe appeared with tidings that the prom- 
ised embassy was on its way ; and yet more, when, 
on the seventeenth, four Iroquois approached the 
shore, and, in a loud voice, announced themselves 
as envoys of their nation. The tumult was prodig- 
ious. Montmagny's soldiers formed a double rank, 
and the savage rabble, with wild eyes and faces 
smeared with grease and paint, stared over the 
shoulders and between the gun-barrels of the mus- 
keteers, as the ambassadors of their deadliest foe 
stalked, with unmoved visages, towards the fort. 

Now council followed council, with an insuffer- 
able prolixity of speech-making. There were belts 
to wipe out ihe memory of the slain ; belts to clear 
the sky, smooth the rivers, and calm the lakes ; a 



J 645.] PEACE CONFIRMED. 295 

belt to take the hatchet from the hands of the Iro- 
quois ; another to take away their guns ; another 
to take away their shields ; another to wash the 
(var-paint from their faces ; and another to break 
the kettle in which they boiled their prisoners.^ 
(n short, there were belts past numbering, each 
tvith its meaning, sometimes literal, sometimes 
(igurative, but all bearing upon the great work of 
peace. At length all was ended. The dances 
ceased, the songs and the whoops died away, and 
the great muster dispersed, — some to their smoky 
lodges on the distant shores of Lake Huron, and 
some to frozen hunting-grounds in northern forests. 
There was peace in this dark and blood-stained 
wilderness. The lynx, the panther, and the wolf 
had made a covenant of love ; but who should be 
their surety 1 A doubt and a fear mingled with the 
joy of the Jesuit Fathers ; and to then- thanksgiv- 
ings to God they joined a prayer, that the hand 
which had given might still be stretched forth to 
preserve. 

1 Vimont, Relation, 1645, 34. 



CHAPTER XX. 

1645, 1646. . 
THE PEACE BROKEN. 

Uncehtainties. — The Mission of Jogues. — He reaches xhb 
Mohawks. — His Reception. — His Retorn. — His Second Mis- 
sion. — Warnings of Danger. — Rage of the Mohawks.— 
Murder of Jogues. 

There is little doubt that the Iroquois negotia- 
tors acted, for the moment, in sincerity. Guillaume 
Couture, who returned with them and spent the 
whiter in their towns, saw sufficient proof that they 
smcerely deshed peace. And yet the treaty had a 
double defect. First, the wayward, capricious, and 
ungoverned nature of the Indian parties to it, on 
both sides, made a speedy rupture more than likely. 
Secondly, in spite of their own assertion to the 
contrary, the Iroquois envoys represented, not the 
confederacy of the five nations, but only one of 
these nations, the Mohawks : for each of the mem- 
bers of this singular league could, and often did, 
make peace and war independently of the rest. 

It was the Mohawks who had made war on the 
French and their Indian allies on the lower St. 

f296] 



1646.] THE MISSION OF JOGUES. 297 

Lawrence. They claimed, as against the other 
Iroquois, a certain right of domain to all this 
region ; and though the warriors of the four upper 
nations had sometimes poached on the Mohawk 
preserve, by murdering both French and Indians 
at Montreal, they employed their energies for the 
most part in attacks on the Hurons, the Upper 
Algonquins, and other tribes of the interior. These 
attacks still continued, unaffected by the peace with 
the Mohawks. Imperfect, however, as the treaty 
was, it was invaluable, could it but be kept invio- 
late ; and to this end Montmagny, the Jesuits, and 
aU the colony, anxiously turned their thoughts.^ 

It was to hold the Mohawks to their faith that 
Couture had bravely gone back to winter among 
them ; but an agent of more acknowledged weight 
was needed, and Father Isaac Jogues was chosen. 
No white man, Couture excepted, knew then- lan- 
guage and their character so well. His errand was 
half political, half religious ; for not only was he 

1 The Mohawks were at this time more numerous, as compared with 
the other four nations of the Iroquois, than they were a few years later. 
They seem to have suffered more reverses in war than any of the others. 
At this time they may be reckoned at six or seven hundred warriors. 
A war with the Mohegans, and another witli tlie Andastes, besides their 
war with tlie Algonquins and the French of Canada soon after, told 
severely on their strength. The following are estimates of the numbers 
of the Iroquois warriors made in 1660 by the author of the Relation of that 
year, and by Wentworth Greenhalgh in 1677, from personal inspection: — ■ 

1660. 1677. 

Mohawks 500 .. . 300 



Oneidas 100 

Onondagas 300 

Cayugas 300 

Senecas ..... 1,000 



200 

350 

300 

1,000 



2,200 2,150 



298 THE PEACE BROKEN. [1646. 

to be the bearer of gifts, wampum-belts, and mes- 
sages from the Governor, but he was also to found 
a new mission, christened in advance with a pro- 
phetic name, — the 3Hssion of the Martyrs. 

For two years past, Jogues had been at Montreal ; 
and it was here that he received the order of his 
Superior to proceed to the Mohawk towns. At 
first, nature asserted itself, and he recoiled invol- 
untarily at the thought of the horrors of which his 
scarred body and his mutilated hands were a living 
memento.^ It was a transient weakness ; and he 
prepared to depart with more than willingness, 
giving thanks to Heaven that he had been found 
worthy to suffer and to die for the saving of souls 
and the greater glory of God. 

He felt a presentiment that his death was near, 
and wrote to a friend, " I shall go, and shall not 
return."^ An Algonquin convert gave him sage 
advice. " Say nothing about the Faith at first, for 
there is nothing so repulsive, in the beginning, as 
our doctrine, which seems to destroy everything 
that men hold dear ; and as your long cassock 
preaches, as well as your lips, you had better put 
on a short coat." Jogues, therefore, exchanged 
the uniform of Loyola for a civilian's doublet and 
hose ; "for," observes his Superior, "one should be 
all things to all men, that he may gain them all to 
Jesus Christ."^ It would be well, if the applica- 
tion of the maxim had always been as harmless. 

1 Lettre du P. Isaac Jogues au R. P. Je'rosme U Allemant. Montreal, 
2 Mai, 1646. MS. 

2 " Ibo et non redibo." Lettre du P. Jogues au R. P. No date. 
' Lalemant, Relation, 1646, 15. 



1646.] JOGUES REACHES THE MOHAWKS. 299 

Jogues left Three Rivers about the middle of 
May» with the Sieur Bourdon, engineer to the 
Governor, two Algonquins with gifts to confirm 
the peace, and four Mohawks as guides and es- 
cort. He passed the Richelieu and Lake Cham- 
plain, well-remembered scenes of former miseries, 
and reached the foot of Lake George on the eve 
of Corpus Christi. Hence he called the lake Lac 
St. Sacrement; and this name it preserved, until, 
a century after, an ambitious Irishman, in compli- 
ment to the sovereign from whom he sought 
advancement, gave it the name it bears. ^ 

From Lake George they crossed on foot to the 
Hudson, where, being greatly fatigued by their 
hea^^ loads of gifts, they borrowed canoes at an 
Iroquois fishing station, and descended to Fort 
Orange. Here Jogues met the Hutch friends to 
whom he owed his life, and who now kindly wel- 
comed and entertained him. After a few days he 
left them, and ascended the River Mohawk to the 
fii'st Mohawk town. Crowds gathered from the 
neighboring towns to gaze on the man whom they 
had known as a scorned and abused slave, and 
who now appeared among them as the ambassador 
of a power which hitherto, indeed, they had de- 
spised, but which in their present mood they were 
willing to propitiate.. 

There was a council in one of the lodges ; and 
while his crowded auditory smoked their pipes, 
Jogues stood in the midst, and harangued them. 

1 Mr. Shea very reasonably suggests, that a change from Liike Georae 
to Lake Jogues would be equally easy and appropriate. 



i| 



300 THE PEACE BROKEN.. [1646. 

lie offered in due form the gifts of the Governor, 
with the wampum belts and their messages of 
peace, while at every pause his words were echoed 
by a unanimous grunt of applause from the atten- 
tive concourse. Peace speeches were made in 
return ; and all was harmony. When, however, 
the Algonquin deputies stood before the council, 
they and their gifts were coldly received. The old 
hate, mamtained by traditions of mutual atrocity, 
burned fiercely under a thin semblance of peace ; 
and though no outbreak took place, the prospect 
of the future was very ominous. 

The business of the embassy was scarcely fin- 
ished, when the Mohawks comiselled Jogues and 
his companions to go home with all despatch, say- 
ing, that, if they waited longer, they might meet 
on the way warriors of the four upper nations, who 
would inevitably kill the two Algonquin deputies, 
if not the French also. Jogues, therefore, set out 
on his return ; but not until, despite the advice 
of the Indian convert, he had made the round of 
the houses, confessed and instructed a few Chris- 
tian prisoners still remaining here, and baptized 
several dying Mohawks. Then he and his party 
crossed through the forest to the southern extremity 
of Lake George, made bark canoes, and descended 
to Fort Richelieu, where they arrived on the twenty- 
seventh of June.^ 

His political errand was accomplished. Now, 
should he return to the Mohawks, or should the 
Mission of the Martyrs be for a time abandoned ? 

1 Lalemant, Relation, 1646, 17. 



1646.] MOHAWK SUPERSTITION. 301 

Lalemant, who had succeeded Yimont as Superior 
of the missions, held a council at Quebec with 
three other Jesuits, of whom Jogues was one, and 
it was' determined, that, unless some new contin- 
gency should arise, he should remain for the winter- 
at Montreal.^ This was in July. Soon after^ the 
plan was changed, for reasons which do not ap- 
pear, and Jogues received orders to repair to his 
dangerous post. He set out on the twenty-fourth 
of August, accompanied by a young Frenchman 
named Lalande, and three or four Hurons.^ On 
the way they met Indians who warned them of a , 
change of feeling in the Mohawk towns, and the 
Hurons, alarmed, refused to go farther. Jogues, 
naturally perhaps the most timid man of the 
party, had no thought of drawing back, and pur- j 
sued his journey with his young companion, who, 
like other donnes of the missions, was scarcely 
behind the Jesuits themselves in devoted enthusi- 
asm. 

The reported change of feeling had indeed taken 
place ; and the occasion of it was characteristic. 
On his previous visit to the Mohawks, Jogues, 
meaning to return, had left in their charge a small 
chest or box. From the iirst they were distrustful, 
suspecting that it contained some secret mischief. 
He therefore opened it, and showed them the con- 
tents, which were a few personal necessaries ; and 
having thus, as he thought, reassured them, locked 
the box, and left it in their keeping. The Huron 
prisoners in the town attempted to make favor with 

1 Journal des Sup&ieurs des J€suites. MS. ^ Ibid. 

26 



302 



THE PEACE BROKEN. 



11646. 



their Iroquois enemies by abusing their French 
friends, — declaring them to be sorcerers, who had 
bewitched, by their charms and mummeries, the 
whole Huron nation, and caused drought, famine, 
.pestilence, and a host of insupportable miseries. 
Thereupon, the suspicions of the Mohawks against 
the box revived with double force, and they were 
convinced that famine, the pest, or some malignant 
spirit was shut up in it, waiting the moment to 
issue forth and destroy them. There was sickness 
in the to^vn, and caterpillars were eating their 
com : this was ascribed to the sorceries of the 
Jesuit.^ Still they were divided in opinion. Some 
stood fii'm for the French ; others were furious 
against them. Among the Mohawks, three clans 
or families were predominant, if indeed they did 
not compose the entire nation, — the clans of the 
Bear, the Tortoise, and the Wolf.^ Though, by 
the nature of their constitution, it was scarcely 
possible that these clans should come to blows, 
so intimately were they bound together by ties 
of blood, yet they were often divided on points of 
interest or policy ; and on this occasion the Bear 
raged against the French, and howled for war, 
while the Tortoise and the Wolf still clung to the 
treaty. Among savages, with no government ex- 
cept the intermittent one of councils, the party of 
action and violence must always prevail. The 
Bear chiefs sang their war-songs, and, followed by 
the young men of their own clan, and by such 

* Lettre de Marie de V Incarnation a son Fils. Quebec, . . . 1647. 
2 See Introduction. 



1646.J EAGE OF THE MOHAWKS. 303 

others as they had infected with their frenzy, set 
forth, in two bands, on the war-path. 

The warriors of one of these bands were making 
their way through the forests between the Mohawli 
and Lake George, when they met Jogues and La- 
lande. They seized them, stripped them, and led 
them in triumph to their town. Here a savage 
crowd surrounded them, beating them with sticka 
and with tlieir fists. One of them cut thin stripa 
of flesh from the back and arms of Jogues, saying, 
as he did so, " Let us see if this white flesh is the 
flesh of an oki." — "I am a man like yourselves," 
replied Jogues ; " but I do not fear death or tor- 
ture. I do not know why you would kill me. I 
come here to confirm the peace and show you the 
way to heaven, and you treat me like a dog." ^ — 
" You shall die to-morrow," cried the rabble. " Take 
courage, we shall not bui-n you. We shall strike 
you both with a hatchet, and place your heads on 
the palisade, that your brothers may see you when 
"we take them prisoners."^ The clans of the Wolf 
and the Tortoise still raised their voices in behalf 
of the captive Frenchmen ; but the fury of the 
minority swept all before it. 

In the evening, — it was the eighteenth of Oc- 
tober, — Jogues, smarting with his wounds and 
bruises, was sitting in one of the lodges, when an 
Indian entered, and asked him to a feast. To refuse 
would have been an off"ence. He arose and followed 

1 Lettre da P. De Quen an R. P. LaUemant ; no date. MS 

2 Lettre de J. Labatie a M. La Montayne, Fort d' Orange, 30 Oct., 1646, 

MS 



304 THE PEACE BROKEN. |1646. 

the savage, who led him to the lodge of the Bear 
chief. Jogiies bent his head to enter, when another 
Indian, standing concealed within, at the side of the 
doorway, struck at him with a hatchet. An Iroquois, 
called by the French Le Berger,^ who seems to 
have followed in order to defend him, bravely 
lield out his arm to ward oif the blow ; but the 
hatchet cut through it, and sank into the mission- 
ary's brain. He fell at the feet of his miu'derer, 
who at once finished the work by hacking off his 
head. Lalande was left in suspense all night, and 
in the morning was killed in a similar manner. 
The bodies of the tAvo Frenchmen Avere then 
thrown into the Mohawk, and their heads dis- 
played on the points of the palisade which inclosed 
the town.^ 

Thus died Isaac Jogues, one of the purest ex- 
amples of Roman Catholic ^drtue which this West- 
ern continent has seen. The priests, his associates, 
praise his humility, and tell us that it reached the 

1 It has been erroneously stated that this brave attempt to save 
Jogues was made by the orator Kiotsaton. Le Berger was one of those 
wlio had been made prisoners by Piskaret, and treated iiindly by the 
Frencli. In 1648, he voluntarily came to Three Rivers, and gave him- 
self up to a party of Frenchmen. He was converted, baptized, and 
carried to France, where his behavior is reported to have been very edi- 
fying, but where he soon died. " Perhaps he had eaten his share of 
more than fifty men," is the reflection of Father Ragueneau, after re- 
counting his exemplary conduct. — Relation, 1650, 43-48. 

^ In respect to the death of Jogues, the best authority is the letter of 
Labatie, before cited. He was the French interpreter at Fort Orange, and, 
being near the scene of the murder, took pains to learn the facts. The 
letter was inclosed in another written to Montmagny by the Dutch Gov- 
ernor, Ivieft, which is also before me, together with a MS. account, 
written from hearsay, by Father Buteux, and a letter of De Quen, cited 
above. Compare the Relations of 1647 and 1650. 



1646.] CHARACTER OF JOGUES. 305 

point of self-contempt, — a crowning virtue in their 
eyes ; that he regarded himself as nothing, and 
lived solely to do the will of God as uttered by the 
lips of his Superiors. They add, that, when left 
to the guidance of his own judgment, his self-dis- 
trust made him very slow of decision, but that, 
when acting under orders, he knew neither hesita- 
tion nor fear. With all his gentleness, he had a 
certain warmth or vivacity of temperament ; and we 
have seen how, during his first captivity, while 
humbly submitting to every caprice of his tyrants 
and appearing to rejoice in abasement, a derisive 
word against his faith would change the lamb into 
the lion, and the lips that seemed so tame would 
speak in sharp, bold tones of menace and reproof. 



CHAPTER XXL 

1646, 1647. 
ANOTHER WAR. 

MoHiWK Inroads. — The Hunters of Men. — The Capt ve Cow- 
verts. — The Escape of Marie. — Her Story. — The Algcxn- 
QuiN Prisoner's Revenge. — Her Flight. — Terror op the 
Colonists. — Jesuit Intrepidity. 

The peace was broken, and the hounds of war 
turned loose. The contagion spread through all 
the Mohawk nation, the war-songs were sung, and 
the warriors took the path for Canada. The mis- 
erable colonists and then* more miserable allies 
woke from their dream of peace to a reality of fear 
and horror. Again Montreal and Three Rivers 
were beset with murdering savages, skulking in 
thickets and prowling under cover of night, yet, 
when it came to blows, displaying a courage al- 
most equal to the ferocity that inspired it. They 
plundered and burned Fort Richelieu, which its 
small garrison had abandoned, thus leaving the 
colony without even the semblance of protection. 
Before the spring opened, all the fighting men 
of the Mohawks took the war-path ; but it is 
clear that many of them still had little heart for 

[3061 



1647.] THE HUNTERS OF MEN. 301 

their bloody and perfidious work; for^ of these 
hardy and all-enduring warriors, two-thirds gave 
out on the way, and returned, complaining that the 
season was too severe.^ Two hundred or more 
kept on, divided into several bands. 

On Ash-Wednesday, the French at Three Rivers 
were at mass in the chapel, when the Iroquois, 
(juietly approaching, plundered two houses close to 
the fort, containing all the property of the neigh- 
boring inhabitants, which had been brought hither 
as to a place of security. They hid their booty, 
and then went in quest of two large parties of 
Christian Algonquins engaged in their winter hunt. 
Two Indians of the same nation, whom they 
captured, basely set them on the trail ; and they 
took up the chase like hounds on the scent of 
game. Wrapped in furs or blanket-coats, some 
with gun in hand, some with bows and quivers, 
and all with hatchets, war-clubs, knives, or swords, 
— striding on snow-shoes, with bodies half bent, 
through the gray forests and the frozen pine- 
swamps, among wet, black trunks, along dark 
ravines and under savage hill-sides, their small, 
fierce eyes darting quick glances that pierced the 
farthest recesses of the naked woods, — the hunters 
of men followed the track of their human prey. 
At length they descried the bark wigwams of the 
Algonquin camp. The Avarriors were absent ; 
none were here but women and children. The 
Iroquois surrounded the huts, and captured all 
the shrieking inmates. Then ten of them set out 

1 Leitre du P. Btiteux au R. P. Lalemant. MS. 



308 ANOTHER WAR. [1647. 

to find the traces of the absent hunters. They 
soon met the renowned Piskaret returning alone. 
As they recognized him and knew his mettle, they 
thought treachery better than an open attack. 
They therefore approached him in the attitude 
of friends ; while he, ignorant of the rupture of 
the treaty, began to sing his peace-song. Scarcely 
had they joined him, when one of them ran a 
sword through his body ; and, having scalped 
him, they returned in triumph to their compan- 
ions.^ All the hunters were soon after waylaid, 
overpowered by numbers, and killed or taken 
prisoners. 

Another band of the Mohawks had meanwhile 
pursued the other party of Algonquins, and over- 
taken them on the march, as, incumbered with 
their sledges and baggage, they were moving from 
one hunting-camp to another. Though taken by 
surprise, they made fight, and killed several of 
their assailants ; but m a few moments their resis- 
tance was overcome, and those who survived the 
fray were helpless in the clutches of the enraged 
victors. Then began a massacre of the old, the 
disabled, and the infants, with the usual beating, 
gashing, and severing of fingers to the rest. The 
next day, the two bands of Mohawks, each with its 
troop of captives fast bound, met at an appointed 
spot on the Lake of St. Peter, and greeted each 
other with yells of exultation, with which mingled 

1 Lalemant, Relation, 1647, 4. Marie de I'lncamation, Lettre a son 
Fils. Quebec, . . . 1647. Perrot's account, dravyn frcm tradition, is dif- 
ferent, thougli not essentially so. 



1647.] FEROCITY OF THE IROQUOIS. 309 

a wail of anguish, as the prisoners of either party 
recognized their companions in misery. They all 
kneeled in the midst of their savage conquerors, and 
one of the men, a noted convert, after a few words 
of exhortation, repeated in a loud voice a prayer, 
to which the rest responded. Then they sang an 
Algonquin hymn, while the Iroquois, who at first 
had stared in wonder, broke into laughter and 
derision, and at length fell upon them with renewed 
fury. One was burned alive on the spot. Another 
tried to escape, and they burned the soles of his 
feet that he might not repeat the attempt. Many 
others were maimed and mangled ; and some of the 
women who afterwards escaped affirmed, that, in 
ridicule of the converts, they crucified a small child 
by nailing it with wooden spikes against a thick 
sheet of bark. 

The prisoners were led to the Mohawk towns ; 
and it is needless to repeat the monotonous and 
revolting tale of torture and death. The men, as 
usual, were burned ; but the lives of the women 
and children were spared, in order to strengthen 
the conquerors by their adoption, — not, however, 
until both, but especially the women, had been 
made to endure the extremes of sufiering and 
indignity. Several of them from time to time 
escaped, and reached Canada with the story of 
their woes. Among these was Marie, the wife of 
Jean Baptiste, one of the principal Algonquin con- 
verts, captured and burned with the rest. Early 
in June, she appeared in a canoe at Montreal, 
where Madame dAilleboust, to whom she was well 



810 



ANOTHER WAR 



11647. 



known, received her with great kindness, and led 
her to her room in the fort. Here Marie was over- 
come Avith emotion. ]\Iadame d'Ailleboust spoke 
Algonquin with ease ; and her words of sympathy, 
joined to the associations of a place where the un- 
happy fugitive, with her murdered husband and 
child, had often found a friendly welcome, so 
wrought upon her, that her voice was smothered 
with sobs. 

She had once before been a prisoner of the Iro- 
quois, at the town of Onondaga. When she and 
her companions in misfortune had reached the Mo- 
hawk towns, she was recognized by several Onon- 
dagas who chanced to be there, and who, partly 
by threats and partly by promises, induced her to 
return with them to the scene of her former cap- 
tivity, where they assured her of good treatment. 
With their aid, she escaped from the Mohawks, 
and set out with them for Onondaga. On their way, 
they passed the great town of the Oneidas ; and her 
conductors, fearing that certain Mohawks who were 
there would lay claim to her, found a hiding-place 
for her in the forest, where they gave her food, and 
told her to wait their return. She lay concealed 
all day, and at night approached the town, under 
cover of darkness. A dull red glare of flames rose 
above the jagged tops of the palisade that encom- 
passed it ; and, from the pandemonium within, an 
uproar of screams, yells, and bursts of laughter 
told her that they were burning one of her captive 
countrymen. She gazed and listened, shivering 



with cold and aghast with horror. 



The thought 



1647.1 ADVENTUKES OF MARIE. 311 



possessed her that she would soon share his fate, 
and she resolved to fly. The ground was still cov- 
ered ^with snow, and her footprints would infalU- 
bly have betrayed her, if she had not, instead of 
turning towards home, followed the beaten Indian 
path westward. She journeyed on, confused and 
irresolute, and tortured between terror and himger. 
At length she approached Onondaga, a few miles 
from the present city of Syracuse, and hid herself 
in a dense thicket of spruce or cedar, whence she 
crept forth at night, to grope in the half-melted 
snow for a few ears of corn, left from the last year's 
harvest. She saw many Indians from her lurking- 
place, and once a tall savage, with an axe on his 
shoulder, advanced directly towards the spot where 
she lay: but, in the extremity of her fright, she 
murmured a prayer, on which he turned and 
changed his course. The fate that awaited her, if 
she remained, — for a fugitive could not hope for 
mercy, — and the scarcely less terrible dangers of 
the pitiless wilderness between her and Canada, 
filled her with despair, for she was half dead 
already with hunger and cold. She tied her girdle 
to the bough of a tree, and hung herself from it 
by the neck. The cord broke. She repeated the 
attempt with the same result, and then the thought 
came to her that God meant to save her life. The 
snow by this time had melted in the forests, and 
she began her journey for home, with a few hand- 
fuls of corn as her only provision. She directed 
her course by the sun, and for food dug roots, 
peeled the soft inner bark of trees, and sometimes 



312 ANOTHER WAR. [1647. 

caught tortoises in the muddy brooks. She had 
the <rood fortune to find a hatchet in a deserted 
camp, and with it made one of those wooden im- 
plements which the Indians used for kindhng fire 
by friction. This saved her from her worst suffer- 
ing ; for she had no covering but a thin tunic, 
which left her legs and arms bare, and exposed 
her at night to tortures of cold. She built her fire 
in some deep nook of the forest, warmed herself, 
cooked what food she had found, told her .rosary 
on her fingers, and slept till daylight, when she 
always threw water on the embers, lest the rising 
smoke should attract attention. Once she discov- 
ered a party of Iroquois hunters ; but she lay con- 
cealed, and they passed without seeing her. She 
followed their trail back, and found their bark ca- 
noe, which they had hidden near the bank of a 
river. It was too large for her use ; but, as she 
was a practised canoe -maker, she reduced it to a 
convenient size, embarked in it, and descended the 
stream. At length she reached the St. Lawrence, 
and paddled with the current towards Montreal. 
On islands and rocky shores she found eggs of 
water-fowl in abundance ; and she speared fish 
with a sharpened pole, hardened at the point with 
fire. She even killed deer, by driving them into 
the water, chasing them in her canoe, and striking 
them on the head with her hatchet. When she 
landed at Montreal, her canoe had still a good 
store of eggs and dried venison.^ 

1 This story is taken from tlie Relation of 1647, and the letter of 
Marie de ITncarnation to her son. before cited. The woman must have 



1647 J THE CAPTIVE ALGONQUIN. 313 

Her journey from Ononda^*a had occupied about 
two months, under hardships which no woman but 
a squaw could have survived. Escapes not less 
remarkable of several other women are chronicled 
in the records of this year ; and one of them, with' 
a notable feat of arms which attended it, calls for a 
brief notice. 

Eight Algonquins, in one of those fits of desper- 
ate valor which sometimes occur in Indians, en- 
tered . at midnight a camp where thirty or forty 
Iroquois warriors were buried in sleep, and with 
quick, sharp blows of their tomahawks began to 
brain them as they lay. They killed ten of them 
on the spot, and wounded many more. The rest, 
panic-stricken and bewildered by the surprise and 
the thick darkness, fled into the forest, leaving all 
they had in the hands of the victors, including a 
number of Algonquin captives, of whom one had 
been unwittingly killed by his countrymen in the 
confusion. Another captive, a woman, had escaped 
on a previous night. They had stretched her on 
her back, with limbs extended, and bound her 
wrists and ankles to four stakes firmly driven into 
the earth, — their ordinary mode of securing pris- 
oners. Then, as usual, they all fell asleep. She 
presently became aware that the cord that bound 
one of her wrists was somewhat loose, and, by long 
and painful eff"orts, she freed her hand. To release 
the other hand and her feet was then compar- 
atively easy. She cautiously rose. Around her, 

descended the great rapids of Lachine in her canoe : a feat demanding 
no ordinary nerve and skill. 

27 



314 ANOTHER WAR, [1G47. 

breathing in deep sleep, lay stretched the dark 
forms of the unconscious warriors, scarcely visible 
in the gloom. She stepped over them to the en- 
trance of the hut ; and here, as she was passing 
out, she descried a hatchet on the ground. The 
temptation was too strong for her Indian nature. 
She seized it, and struck again and again, with all 
her force, on the skull of the Iroquois who lay at 
the entrance. The sound of the blows, and the 
convulsive struggles of the victim, roused the sleep- 
ers. They sprang up, groping in the dark, and 
demandins: of each other what was the matter. At 
length they lighted a roll of birch-bark, found their 
prisoner gone and their comrade dead, and rushed 
out in a rage in search of the fugitive. She, mean- 
while, instead of running away, had hid herself in 
the hollow of a tree, which she had observed the 
evening before. Her pursuers ran through the 
dark Avoods, shouting and whooping to each other ; 
and when all had passed, she crept from her hid- 
ing-place, and fled in an opposite airection. In 
the morning they found her tracks and followed 
them. On the second day they had overtaken and 
surrounded her, when, hearing their cries on all 
sides, she gave up all hope. But near at hand, in 
the thickest depths of the forest, the beavers had 
dammed a brook and formed a pond, full of gnawed 
stumps, dead fallen trees, rank weeds, and tangled 
bushes. She plunged in, and, swimming and wad- 
ing, found a hiding-place, where her body was con- 
cealed by the water, and her head by the masses of 
dead and living vegetation. Her pursuers were at 



1647.] THE FUGITIVE SQUAW. 315 

fault, and, after a long search, gave up the chase 
in despair. Shivering, naked, and half-starved, she 
crawled out from her wild asylum, and resumed 
her flight. By day, the briers and bushes tore her 
unprotected limbs ; by night, she shivered with 
cold, and the mosquitoes and small black gnats 
of the forest persecuted her with torments which 
the modern sportsman will appreciate. She sub- 
sisted on such roots, bark, reptiles, or other small 
animals, as her Indian habits enabled her to gather 
on her way. She crossed streams by swimming, 
or on rafts of driftwood, lashed together with 
strips of linden-bark*; and at length reached the 
St. Lawrence, where, with the aid of her hatchet, 
she made a canoe. Her home was on the Ottawa, 
and she was ignorant of the great river, or, at 
least, of this part of it. She had scarcely even 
seen a Frenchman, but had heard of the French as 
friends, and knew that their dwellings were on 
the banks of the St. Lawrence. This was her 
only guide ; and she drifted on her way, doubtful 
whether the vast current would bear her to the 
abodes of the living or to the land of souls. She 
passed the watery wilderness of the Lake of St. 
Peter, and presently descried a Huron canoe. 
Fearing that it was an enemy, she hid herself, 
and resumed her voyage in the evening, when she 
soon came in sight of the wooden buildnigs and 
palisades of Three Rivers. Several Hurons saw 
her at the same moment, and made towards her ; 
on which she leaped ashore and hid in the bushes, 
whence, being entirely without clothing, she Avould 



316 ANOTHER WAR. [1647. 

not come out till one of them threw her his coat. 
Having wrapped herself in it, she went with them 
to the fort and the house of the Jesuits, in a 
wretched state of emaciation, but in high spirits 
at the happy issue of her voyage.^ 

Such stories might be multiphed ; but these will 
suffice. Nor is it necessary to dwell further on the 
bloody record of inroads, butcheries, and tortures. 
We have seen enough to show the nature of the 
scourge that now fell without mercy on the Indians 
and the French of Canada. There was no safety 
but in the imprisonment of palisades and ramparts. 
A deep dejection sank on the white and red men 
alike ; but the Jesuits would not despair. 

" Do not imagine," writes the Father Superioi, 
" that the rage of the Iroquois, and the loss of 
many Christians and many catechumens, can bring 
to nought the mystery of the cross of Jesus Christ, 
and the efficacy of his blood. We shall die ; we 
shall be captured, burned, butchered: be it so. 
Those who die in their beds do not always die the 
best death. I see none of our company cast down. 
On the contrary, they ask leave to go up to the 
Hurons, and some of them protest that the fii'es 
of the Iroquois are one of their motives for the 
journey." ^ 

I Lalemant, Tldaikn, 1647, 16, 16. 2 Ibid., 8. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

1645-1651. 
PRIEST AJSB PURITAN. 

Miscou. — Tadoussac. — Journeys of De Quen. — DRUiLLETiis.- 
His Winter with the Montagnais. — Influence of the Mis- 
sions. — The Abenaquis. — Druilletes on the Kennebec. — 
His Embassy to Boston. — Gibbons. — Dudley. — Bradford. 
—Eliot. — Endicott. — Erench and Puritan Colonization. 
— Failure of Druilletes's Embassy. — New Regulations. — 
New- Year's Day at Quebec. 

Before passing to the closing scenes of this 
•wilderness drama, we will touch briefly on a few 
points aside from its main action, yet essential to 
an understanding of the scope of the mission. 
Besides their establishments at Quebec, Sillery, 
Three E-ivers, and the neighborhood of Lake 
Huron, the Jesuits had an outlying post at the 
island of Miscou, on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
near the entrance of the Bay of Chaleurs, where 
they instructed the wandering savages of those 
shores, and confessed the French fishermen. The 
island was unhealthy in the extreme. Several of 
the priests sickened and died ; and scarcely one 
convert repaid their toils. There was a more suc- 

27* [3171 



fjly PRIEST AND PURITAN. [1640-47. 

cessful mission at Tadoussac, or Sadilege, as the 
neighboring Indians called it. In winter, this 
place was a solitude ; but in summer, when the 
Montagnais gathered from their hunting-grounds 
to meet the French traders, Jesuits came yearly 
from Quebec to instruct them in the Faith. Some- 
times they followed them northward, into wilds 
where, at this day, a white man rarely penetrates. 
Thus, in 1646, De Quen ascended the Saguenay, 
and, by a series of rivers, torrents, lakes, and rapids, 
reached a Montagnais horde called the Nation of 
the Porcupine, where he found that the teachings 
at Tadoussac had borne fruit, and that the converts 
had planted a cross on the borders of the savage 
lake where they dwelt. There was a kindred band, 
the Nation of the White Fish, among the rocks and 
forests north of Three Rivers. They proved tract- 
able beyond all others, threw away their " medi- 
cines " or fetiches, burned their magic drums, 
renounced their medicine-songs, and accepted in- 
stead rosaries, crucifixes, and versions of Catholic 
hymns. 

In a former chapter, we followed Father Paul 
Le Jeune on his winter roamings, with a band of 
ISIontagnais, among the forests on the northern 
boundary of INIaine. Now Father Gabriel Druil- 
letes sets forth on a similar excursion, but with one 
essential difference. Le Jeune's companions were 
heathen, who persecuted him day and night with 
their gibes and sarcasms. Those of Druilletes were 
all converts, who looked on him as a friend and a 
father. There were prayers, confessions, masses, 



1644-45.1 INFLUENCE OF THE MISSIONS. 319 

and invocations of St. Joseph. They built their 
bark chapel at every camp, and no festival of the 
Church passed unobserved. On Good Friday they 
laid their best robe of beaver-skin on the snow, 
placed on it a crucifix, and knelt around it in 
prayer. What was then- prayer ? It was a peti- 
tion for the forgiveness and the conversion of their 
enemies, the Iroquois.^ Those who know the in- 
tensity and tenacity of an Indian's hatred will see 
in this something more than a change from one 
superstition to another. An idea had been pre- 
sented to the mind of the savage, to which he had 
previously been an utter stranger. This is the most 
remarkable record of success in the whole body 
of the Jesuit Relations ; but it is very far from 
being the only evidence, that, in teaching the dog- 
mas and observances of the Roman Church, the 
missionaries taught also the morals of Christianity. 
When we look for the results of these missions, we 
soon become aware that the influence of the French 
and the Jesuits extended far beyond the circle of 
concerts. It eventually modified and softened the 
manners of many unconverted tribes. In the wars 
of the next century we do not often find those ex 
amples of diabolic atrocity with which the earlier 
annals are crowded. The savage burned his ene* 
mies alive, it is true, but he rarely ate them ; 
neither did he torment them with the same delib- 
eration and persistency. He was a savage still, 
but not so often a devil. The improvement was 
not great, but it was distinct ; and it seems to have 

1 Vimont, Relation, 1645, 16. 



f 



320 PKIEST AND PURITAN. [1644-45. 

taken place wherever Indian tribes were in close 
relations with any respectable community of white 
men. Thus Philip's war in New England, cruel as 
it was, was less ferocious, judging from Canadian 
experience, than it would have been, if a genera- 
tion of civilized intercourse had not worn down 
the sharpest asperities of barbarism. Yet it was to 
French priests and colonists, mingled as they were 
soon to be among the tribes of the vast interior, 
that the change is chiefly to be ascribed. In this 
softening of manners, such as it was, and in the 
obedient Catholicity of a feAv hundred tamed savages 
gathered at stationary missions in various parts of 
Canada, we find, after a century had elapsed, all 
the results of the heroic toil of the Jesuits. The 
missions had failed, because the Indians had ceased 
to exist. Of the great tribes on whom rested the 
hopes of the early Canadian Fathers, nearly all were 
vu'tually extinct. The missionaries built labori- 
ously and well, but they were doomed to build on 
a failing foundation. The Indians melted away, 
not because civilization destroyed them, but^ be- 
cause their own ferocity and intractable indolence 
made it impossible that they should exist in its 
presence. Either the plastic energies of a higher 
race or the servile pliancy of a lower one would, 
each in its way, have preserved them : as it was, 
their extinction was a foregone conclusion. As for 
the religion which the Jesuits taught them, however 
Protestants may carp at it, it was the only form of 
Christianity likely to take root in their crude and 
barbarous nature. 



1646.] DRUILLETES ON THE KENNEBEC. 321 

To return to Druilletes. The smoke of the wig- 
wam blinded him ; and it is no matter of surprise 
to hear that he was cured by a miracle. He re- 
turned from his winter roving to Quebec in high 
health, and soon set forth on a new mission. On 
the River Kennebec, in the present State of Maine, 
dwelt the Abenaquis, an Algonquin people, destined 
hereafter to become a thorn in the sides of the New- 
England colonists. Some of them had visited their 
friends, the Christian Indians of Sillery. Here they 
became converted, went home, and preached the 
Faith to their countrymen, and this to such pur- 
pose that the Abenaquis sent to Quebec to ask for 
a missionary. Apart from the saving of souls, 
there were solid reasons for acceding to their re- 
quest. The Abenaquis were near the colonies 
of New England, — indeed, the Plymouth colony, 
under its charter, claimed jurisdiction over them; 
and in case of rupture, they would prove service- 
able friends or dangerous enemies to New France.^ 
Their messengers were favorably received ; and 
Druilletes was ordered to proceed upon the new 
mission. 

He left Sillery, with a party of Indians, on the 
twenty-ninth of August, 1646,^ and following, as 
it seems, the route by which, a hundred and twenty- 
nine years later, the soldiers of Arnold made their 
Way to Quebec, he reached the waters of the 
Kennebec and descended to the Abenaqui villages. 
Here he nursed the sick, baptized the dying, and 

1 Charlevoix, I. 280, gives this as a motive of the mission. 
* Lalemant, Relation, 1647, 51. 



322 PRIEST AND PURITAN. [1646-47. 

gave such instruction as, in his ignorance of the 
language, he was able. Apparently he had been 
ordered to reconnoitre ; for he presently descended 
the river from Norridgewock to the first English 
trading-post, where Augusta now stands. Thence 
he continued his journey to the sea, and followed 
the coast in a canoe to the Penobscot, visiting seven 
or eight English posts on the way, where, to his 
surprise, he was very well received. At the Pe- 
nobscot he found several Capuchin friars, under 
their Superior, Father Ignace, who welcomed him 
with the utmost cordiality. Returning, he again 
ascended the Kennebec to the English post at 
Augusta. At a spot three miles above the Indians 
had gathered in considerable numbers, and here 
they built him a chapel after their fashion. He 
remained till midAvinter, catechizing and baptizing, 
and waging war so successfully against the Indian 
sorcerers, that medicine-bags were thrown away, 
and charms and incantations were supplanted by 
prayers. In January the whole troop set off on 
their grand hunt, Druilletes following them, — 
" with toil," says the chronicler, " too great to buy 
the kingdoms of this world, but very small as a 
price for the Kmgdom of Heaven." ^ They en- 
camped on Moosehead Lake, where new disputes 
with the " medicine-men " ensued, and the Father 
again remained master of the field. When, after a 
prosperous hunt, the party returned to the English 
trading-house, John Winslow, the agent in charge 

1 Lalemant, Relation, 1647, 54. For an account of this mission, see 
also Maurault, Histoire des AbenaJcis, 116-156. 



1650.] DRUILLETES SENT 10 BOSTON. 323 

again received the missionary with a kindness which 
showed no trace of jealousy or rehgious prejudice.* 

Early in the summer Druilletes went to Quebec; 
and during the two following years, the Abenaquis, 
for reasons which are not clear, were left without a 
missionary. He spent another winter of extreme 
hardship with the Algonquins on their winter rov- 
ings, and during summer instructed the wandering 
savages of Tadoussac. It was not until the autumn 
of 1650 that he again descended the Kennebec. 
This time he went as an envoy charged with the 
negotiation of a treaty. His journey is worthy of 
notice, since, with the unimportant exception of 
Jogues's embassy to the Mohawks, it is .the first 
occasion on which the Canadian Jesuits appear in 
a character distinctly political. iVfterwards, when 
the fervor and freshness of the missions had passed 
away, they frequently did the work of political 
agents among the Indians : but the Jesuit of the 
earlier period was, with rare exceptions, a mis- 
sionary only ; and though he was expected to exert 
a powerful influence in gaining subjects and allies 
for France, he was to do so by gathering them 
under the wings of the Church. 

The Colony of Massachusetts had applied to the 
French officials at Quebec, with a view to a recipro- 
city of trade. The Iroquois had brought Canada 
to extremity, and the French Governor conceived 
llie hope of gaining the powerful support of New 

1 Winslow would scarcely have recognized liis own name in the Jesuit 
spelling, — " Le Sieur de Houinslaud." In his journal of 1650 Druilletea 
is more successful in his orthograpliy, and spells it Winslau. 



324 I'RIEST AND PURITAN. [1P!>0. 

England by granting the desired privileges on con- 
dition of military aid. But, as the Puritans would 
scarcely see it for their interest to provoke a dan- 
gerous enemy, who had thus far never molested 
them, it was resolved to urge the proposed alliance 
as a point of duty. The Abenaquis had suffered 
from Mohawk inroads ; and the French, assuming 
for the occasion that they were under the jurisdic- 
tion of the English colonies, argued that they were 
bound to protect them. Druilletes went in a double 
character, — as an envoy of the government at Que- 
bec, and as an agent of his Abenaqui flock, who 
had been advised to petition for English assistance. 
The time seemed inauspicious for a Jesuit visit 
to Boston ; for not only had it been announced 
as foremost among the objects in colonizing New 
England, " to raise a bulwark against the kingdom 
of Antichrist, which the Jesuits labor to rear up in 
all places of the world," ^ but, three years before, 
the Legislature of Massachusetts had enacted, that 
Jesuits entering the colony should be expelled, and, 
if they returned, hanged.^ 

Nevertheless, on the first of September, Druil- 
letes set forth from Quebec with a Christian chief 
of Sillery, crossed forests, mountains, and torrents, 
and reached Norridgewock, the highest Abenaqui 
settlement on the Kennebec. Thence he descended 
to the English trading-house at Augusta, where his 

1 Considerations for the Plantation in New England. — See Hutchinson, 
Collection, 27. Mr. Savage thinks that tliis paper was by Wintlirop. See 
Savage's Wintlirop. I. 300, note. 

2 See the Act, in Hazard, 550. 



1650.] EDWAED GIBBONS. 325 

fast friend, the Puritan Winslow, gave him a warm 
■welcome, entertained him hospitably, and promised 
to forward the object of his mission. lie went with 
him, at great personal inconvenience, to Merrymeet- 
ing Bay, where Druilletes embarked in an English 
vessel for Boston. The passage was stormy, and 
the wind ahead. He was forced to land at Cape 
Ann, or, as he calls it, Kepane^ whence, partly on 
foot, partly in boats along the shore, he made his 
way to Boston. The three-hilled city of the Puri- 
tans lay chill and dreary under a December sky, as 
the priest crossed in a boat from the neighboring 
peninsula of Charlestown. 

Winslow was agent for the merchant, Edward 
Gibbons, a personage of note, whose life presents 
curious phases, — a reveller of Merry Mount, a 
bold sailor, a member of the church, an adventur- 
ous trader, an associate of buccaneers, a magistrate 
of the commonwealth, and a major-general.^ The 
Jesuit, with credentials from the Governor of Can- 
ada and letters from Winslow, met a reception 
widely different from that which the law enjoined 
against persons of his profession.^ Gibbons wel- 
comed him heartily, prayed him to accept no other 
lodging than his house while he remained in Bos- 
ton, and gave him the key of a chamber, in order 
that he might pray after his own fashion, without 
fear of disturbance. An accurate Catholic writer 

1 An account of him will be found in Palfrey, Hist, of New England, 
n. 225, note. 

2 In the Act, an exception, however, was made in favor of Jesuits 
coming as ambassadors or envoys from their government, who were de- 
clared not Uable to the penally of hanging. 

28 



326 PRIEST AND PUEITAN. 11650. 

thinks it likely that he brought with him the means 
of celebrating the Mass.^ If so, the house of the 
Puritan was, no doubt, desecrated by that Popish 
abomination ; but be this as it may, Massachusetts, 
in the person of her magistrate, became the gra- 
cious host of one of those whom, next to the De^dl 
and an Anglican bishop, she most abhorred. 

On the next day. Gibbons took his guest to Kox- 
bury, — called Rogsbray by Druilletes, — to see the 
Governor, the harsh and narrow Dudley, grown gray 
in repellent virtue and grim honesty. Some half a 
century before, he had served in France, under 
Henry the Fourth ; but he had forgotten his French, 
and called for an interpreter to explain the visitor's 
credentials. He received Druilletes with courtesy, 
and promised to call the magistrates together on 
the following Tuesday to hear his proposals. They 
met accordingly, and Druilletes was asked to dine 
with them. The old Governor sat at the head of 
the table, and after dmner invited the guest to 
open the business of his embassy. They listened 
to him, desired him to withdraw, and, after consult- 
ing among themselves, sent for him to join them 
again at supper, when they made him an answer, 
of which the record is lost, but which evidently 
was not definitive. 

As the Abenaqui Indians were within the juris- 
diction of Plymouth,^ Druilletes proceeded thither 

1 J. G. Shea, in Boston Pilot. 

2 Fur the documents on the title of Plymouth to lands on the Kenne- 
bec, see Drake's additions to Baylies's History of New Plymouth, 36, where 
the}^ are illustrated by an ancient map. The patent was obtained as early 
as 1628, and a trading-house soon after established. 



1650-51.] ENDICOTT. 327 

in his character of their agent. Here, again, he 
was received with courtesy and kindness. Gov- 
ernor Bradford invited him to dine, and, as it was 
Friday, considerately gave him a dinner of fish. 
Druilletes conceived great hope that the colony 
could be wrought upon to give the desired assist- 
ance ; for some of the chief inhabitants had an 
interest in the trade with the Abenaquis.^ He 
came back by land to Boston, stopping again at 
Roxbury on the Avay. It was night when he ar- 
rived ; and, after the usual custom, he took lodg- 
ing with the minister. Here were several young 
Indians, pupils of his host: for he was no other 
than the celebrated Eliot, who, during the past 
summer, had established his mission at Natick,^ 
and was now laboring, in the fulness of his zeal, in 
the work of civilization and conversion. There was 
great sympathy between the two missionaries ; and ,^ 
Eliot prayed his guest to spend the winter with him. ! 
At Salem, which Druilletes also visited, in com- '' 
pany with the minister of Marblehead, he had an 
interview with the stern, but manly, Endicott, who, 
he says, spoke French, and expressed both interest 
and good-will towards the objects of the expedition. 
As the envoy had no money left, Endicott paid his 
charges, and asked him to dine with the magis- 
trates.^ 

1 The Record of the Colony of Plymouth, June 5, 1651, contains, however 
the entry, " The Court declare themselves not to be willing to aid them 
(the French) in their design, or to grant them I'herty to go through their 
jurisdiction for the aforesaid purpose" (to atto'^k the Mohawks). 

2 See Palfrey, New England, II. 336. 

' On Druilletes 's visit to New England, see his joi.,'nal, entitled Narre 



328 PRIEST AND PUEITAN. [1650-61, 

Druilletes was evidently struck with the thrift 
and vigor of these sturdy young colonies, and the 
strength of their population. He says that Boston, 
meaning Massachusetts, could alone furnish four 
thousand fighting men, and that the four united 
colonies could count forty thousand souls. ^ These 
numbers may be challenged ; but, at all events, the 
contrast was striking with the attenuated and suf- 
fering bands of priests, nuns, and fur-traders on 
the St. Lawrence. About twenty-one thousand per- 
sons had come from Old to New England, with 
the resolve of making it their home ; and though 
this immigration had virtually ceased, the natural 
increase had been great. The necessity, or the 
strong desii'e. of escaping from persecution had 
given the impulse to Puritan colonization ; while, 
on the other hand, none but good Catholics, the 
favored class of France, were tolerated in Canada. 
These had no motive for exchanging the comforts 
of home and the smiles of Fortune for a starving 
wilderness and the scalping-knives of the Iroquois. 
The Huguenots would have emigrated in swarms ; 
but they were rigidly forbidden. The zeal of propa- 
gandism and the fur-trade were, as we have seen, 
the vital forces of New France. Of her feeble 
population, the best part was bound to perpetual 
chastity ; while the fiu*-traders and those in their 

du Voyage faict pour la Mission des Ahenaquois, et des Connoissances tir€z de la 
Nouielle Anrjleterre et des Dispositions des Magistrats de cette Republique pour 
Ic Secours coiitre les Iroquois. See also Druilletes, Rapport sur le R€sultat deset 
Negotiations, in Ferland, Notes sur les Registres, 95. 

1 Druilletes, Rejlexions touchant ce qu'on pent esperer de la Nouvelle Angle' 
terre contre I'Irocquois (sic), appended to Ids journal. 



1650-51.] THE RIVAL COLONIES. 329 

service rarely brought their wives to the wilderness. 
The fur-trader, moreover, is always the worst of 
colonists ; since the increase of population, by dimin- 
ishing the numbers of the fur-bearing animals, is 
adverse to his interest. But behind all this there 
was in the religious ideal of the rival colonies an 
influence which alone would have gone far to pro- 
duce the contrast in material growth. 

To the mind of the Puritan, heaven was God's 
throne ; but no less was the earth His footstool : and 
each in its degree and its kind had its demands on 
man. He held it a duty to labor and to multiply ; 
and, building on the Old Testament quite as much 
as on the New, thought that a reward on earth as 
well as in heaven awaited those who were faithful 
to the law. Doubtless, such a belief is widely open 
to abuse, and it would be folly to pretend that it 
escaped abuse in New England ; but there was in 
it an element manly, healthful, and invigorating. 
On the other hand, those who shaped the character, 
and in great measure the destiny, of New France 
had always on their lips the nothingness and the 
vanity of life. For them, time was nothing but a 
preparation for eternity, and the highest virtue con- 
sisted in a renunciation of all the cares, toils, and 
interests of earth. That such a doctrine has often 
been joined to an intense worldliness, all history 
proclaims ; but with this we have at present 
nothing to do. If all mankind acted on it in 
good faith, the world would sink into decrepitude. 
It is the monastic idea carried into the wide 
field of active life, and is like the error of those 

28* 



330 PRIEST AND PURITAN. [1651. 

who, in their zeal to cultivate their higher nature, 
suffer the neglected body to dwindle and pine, 
'till body and mind alike lapse into feebleness and 
disease. 

Druilletes returned to the Abenaquis, and thence 
to Quebec, full of hope that the object of his mis- 
sion was in a fair way of accomplishment. The 
Governor, d'Ailleboust,^ who had succeeded Mont- 
magny, called his council, and Druilletes was again 
dispatched to New England, together with one 
of the principal inhabitants of Quebec, Jean Paul 
Godefroy.^ They repaired to New Haven, and 
appeared before the Commissioners of the Four 
Colonies, then in session there ; but their errand 
proved bootless. The Commissioners refused either 
to declare war or to permit volunteers to be raised 
in New England against the Iroquois. The Puritan, 
like his descendant, would not fight without a rea- 
son. The bait of free-trade with Canada failed to 
tempt him ; and the envoys retraced thek steps, 
with a flat, though courteous refusal.^ 

Now let us stop for a moment at Quebec, and 
observe some notable changes that had taken place 

1 The same who, with his wife, had joined the colonists of Montreal. 
See ante, p. 264. 

2 He was one of the Governor's council. — Ferland, Notes sur les Re- 
gistres, 67. 

3 On Druilletes's second embassy, see Lettre ^crite par le Conseil de 
Quebec aux Commissionaires de la NouvelJe Angleterre, in Charlevoix, I. 287 ; 
Extrait des Rerjislres de I' Ancien Conseil de Quebec, Ibid., I. 288; Copy of a 
Letter from the Commissioners of the United Colonies to the Governor of Can- 
ada, in Hazard, II. 183 ; Answare to the Propositions presented by the hon- 
ei-ed French Agents, Ibid., II. 184; and Hutchinson, Collection cf Papers, 
240. Also, Records of the Commissioners of the United Colonies, Sept. 5 
1651 ; and Commission of Druilletes and Godefroy, in N.Y. Col. Docs., IX. 6 



164&-51.] NEW KEGULATIONS. 331 

in the affairs of the colony. The Company of the 
Hundred Associates, whose outlay had been great 
and their profit small, transferred to the inhabitants 
of the colony their monopoly of the fur-trade, and 
with it then* debts. The inhabitants also assumed 
their obligations to furnish arms, munitions, sol' 
diers, and works of defence, to pay the Governor 
and other officials, introduce emigrants, and con- 
tribute to support the missions. The Company 
was to receive, besides, an annual acknowledge- 
ment of a thousand pounds of beaver, and was to 
retain all seigniorial rights. The inhabitants were 
to form a corporation, of which any one of them 
might be a member ; and no individual could trade 
on his own account, except on condition of selling 
at a fixed price to the magazine of this new com- 
pany.^ 

This change took place in 1645. It was fol- 
lowed, in 1647, by the establishment of a Council, 
composed of the Governor-General, the Superior 
of the Jesuits, and the Governor of Montreal, who 
were invested with absolute powers, legislative, 
judicial, and executive. The Governor- General 
had an appointment of twenty-five thousand livres, 
besides the privilege of bringing over seventy tons 
of freight, yearly, in the Company's ships. Out of 
this he was required to pay the soldiers, repair the 
forts, and supply arms and munitions. Ten thou- 
sand livres and thirty tons of freight, with similar 
conditions, were assigned to the Governor of Mont- 

1 Articles accordea entre les Diredeurs et Associe's cle la Compa<jnie de la 
2V«"« France el les Deputes des Habitans du dit Pays, 6 Mars, 1645. MS. 



332 PRIEST AND PURITAN. [1645-51 

real. Under these circumstances, one cannot won- 
der that the colony was but indifferently defended 
against the Iroquois, and that the Kmg had to 
send soldiers to save it from destruction. In the 
next year, at the instance of Maisonneuve, another 
change was made. A specified sum was set apart 
for purposes of defence, and the salaries of the 
Governors were proportionably reduced. The 
Governor-General, Montmagny, though he seems 
to have done better than could reasonably have 
been expected, was removed ; and, as Maisonneuve 
declined the office, d'Ailleboust, another Montre- 
alist, was appointed to it. This movement, indeed, 
had been accomplished by the interest of the Mont- 
real party ; for akeady there was no slight jealousy 
between Quebec and her rival. 

The Council was reorganized, and now consisted 
of the Governor, the Superior of the Jesuits, and 
three of the principal inhabitants.^ These last 
were to be chosen every three years by the Council 
itself, in conjunction with the Syndics of Quebec, 
Montreal, and Three Rivers. The Syndic was an 
officer elected by the inhabitants of the community 
to w^hicli he belonged, to manage its affairs. Hence 
a slight mgredient of liberty was introduced into 
the new organization. 

The colony, since the transfer of the fur-trade, 
had become a resident corporation of merchants, 
with the Governor and Council at its head. They 
were at once the dhectors of a trading company, 

1 The Governors of Montreal and Three Rivers, when present, had 
also seats in the Council. 



1651.] QUEBEC. . 333 

a legislative assembly, a court of justice, and an 
executive body: more even than this, for thej 
regulated the private affairs of families and indi« 
viduals. The appointment and payment of clerks 
and the examining of accounts mingled with high 
functions of government ; and the new corporation 
of the inhabitants seems to have been managed 
with very little consultation of its members. How 
the Father Superior acquitted himself in • his ca- 
pacity of director of a fur-company is nowhere 
recorded.^ 

As for Montreal, though it had given a Govornor 
to the colony, its prospects were far from hopeful. 
The ridiculous Dauversiere, its chief founder, was 
sick and bankrupt ; and the Associates of INIont- 
real, once so full of zeal and so abounding in 
wealth, were reduced to nine persons. AVhat it 
had left of vitality was in the enthusiastic Made- 
moiselle Mance, the earnest and disinterested 
soldier, Maisonneuve, and the priest, Olier, with 
his new Seminary of St. Sulpice. 

Let us visit Quebec in midwinter. We pass the 
warehouses and dwellings of the lower town, and 
as we climb the zigzag way now called Mountain 
Street, the frozen river, the roofs, the summits of 
the cliif, and all the broad landscape below and 
around us glare in the sharp sunlight with a 
dazzling whiteness. At the top, scarcely a private 
house is to be seen ; but, instead, a fort, a chui'ch, 
a hospital, a cemetery, a house of the Jesuits, and 

1 Those curious in regard to these new regulations will find an ac- 
count of them, at greater length, in Ferland and Faillon. 



334 PRIEST AND PURITAN. [1645-51 

an Ursiiline convent. Yet, regaidless of the keen 
air, soldiers, Jesuits, servants, officials, women, all 
of the little community who are not cloistered, are 
abroad and astir, Despite the gloom of the times, 
an unwonted cheer enlivens this rocky perch of 
France and the Faith ; for it is New-Year's L»ay, 
and there is an active interchange of greetings and 
presents. Thanks to the nimble pen of the Father 
Superior, we know what each gave and what each 
received. He thus writes in his yjrivate journal: — 
" The soldiers went with their guns to salute 
Monsieur the Governor ; and so did also the inhab- 
itants in a body. He was beforehand with us, 
and came here at seven o'clock to wish us a happy 
New- Year, each in turn, one after another. I 
went to see him after mass. Another time we 
must be beforehand with him. M. GifFard also 
came to see us. The Hospital nuns sent us letters 
of compliment very early in the mornmg ; and the 
Ursulines sent us some beautiful presents, with 
candles, rosaries, a crucifix, etc., and, at dinner- 
time, two excellent pies. I sent them two images, 
in enamel, of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier. 
We gave to M. GifFard Father Bonnet's book on 
the life of Our Lord ; to M. des Chatelets, a little 
volume on Eternity ; to M. Bourdon, a telescope 
and compass ; and to others, reliquaries, rosaries, 
medals, images, etc. I went to see M. GifFard, 
M. Couillard, and Mademoiselle de Hepentigny. 
The Ursulines sent to beg that I would come and 
see them before the end of the day. I went, and 
paid my compliments also to Madame de la Peltrie, 



1645-51.1 NEW-YEAK'S DAY. 335 

who sent us some presents. I was near leaving 
this out, which would have heen a sad oversight. 
We gave a crucifix to the woman who washes the 
church-linen, a bottle of eau-de-vie to Abraham, 
four handkerchiefs to his wife, some books of devo- 
tion to others, and two handkerchiefs to Robeii; 
Hache. He aoksd for two more, and we gave 
them to him." ^ 

1 Journal des Supe'rieurs des Jf^uites, MS. Only fragments of this 
curious record are extant. It was 'legun by Lalemant in 1645. For the 
privilege of having what remains ol it copied I am indebted to M. Jacques 
Viger. Tlie entry translated above is of Jan. 1, 1646. • Of the persons 
named in it, Giffard was seigneur of Beauport, and a member of the Coun- 
cil; Des Cliatelets was one of the earliest settlers, and connected by 
marriage with Giffard ; Couillard was son-in-law of the first settler. He- 
bert ; Mademoiselle de Repentigny was daughter of Le Gardeur de 
Repentigiiy, commander of the fleet ; Madame de la Peltrie has been 
described already ; Bourdon was chief engineer of the colony ; Abraham 
was Abraham Martin, pilot for the King on the St. Lawrence, from whom 
the historic Plains of Abraliam received their name. (See Ferland, Notes 
»ur Registres, 16.) The rest were servants, or persons of humble station. 



CHAPTER XXIIl. 

1645-1648. 
A DOOMED NATION. 

Indian Infatuation. — Iroquois and IlrKON. — Huron Triumphs, 
— The Captive Iroquois. — His Ferocitt and Fortitude. — 
Partisan Exploits. — Diplomacy. — The Andastes. — The Hu- 
ron Embassy. — New Negotiations. — The Iroquois Ambas- 
sador. — His Suicide. — Iroquois Honor. 

It was a strange and miserable spectacle to 
behold the savages of this continent at the time 
when the knell of their common ruin had already 
sounded. Civilization had gained a foothold on 
their borders. The long and gloomy reign of bar- 
barism was drawing near its close, and their united 
efforts could scarcely have availed to sustain it. 
Yet, in this crisis of their destiny, these doomed 
tribes were tearing each other's throats in a wolfish 
fury, joined to an intelligence that served little 
purpose but mutual destruction. 

How the quarrel began between the Iroquois 
and their Huron kindred no man can tell, and it is 
not worth while to conjecture. At this time, the 
ruling passion of the savage Confederates was the 
annihilation of this rival people and of their Algon- 

[336] 



1645-48.1 IROQUOIS AND HURON. 337 

quill allies, — if the understanding between the Hu- 
rons and these incoherent hordes can be called an 
alliance. United, they far outnumbered the Iro- 
quois. Indeed, the Hurons alone were not much 
inferior in force ; for, by the largest estimates, the 
strength of the five Iroquois nations must now 
have been considerably less than three thousand 
warriors. Their true superiority was a moral one. 
They were m one of those transports of pride, 
self-confidence, and rage for ascendency, which, 
in a savage people, marks an era of conquest. 
With all the defects of their organization, it was 
far better than that of their neighbors. There 
were bickermgs, jealousies, plottings and counter- 
plottings, separate w^ars and separate treaties, among 
the five members of the league ; yet nothing could 
sunder them. The bonds that united them were 
like cords of India-rubber : they would stretch, and 
the parts would be seemingly disjoined, only to 
return to their old union with the recoil. Such 
was the elastic strength of those relations of clan- 
ship which were the life of the league.^ 

The first meeting of white men with the Hurons 
found them at blows with the Iroquois ; and from 
that time forward, the war raged with increasing 
^ fury. Small scalping-parties infested the Huron 
' forests, killing squaws in the cornfields, or entering 
villages at midnight to tomahawk their sleeping in- 
habitants. Often, too, invasions were made in force 
Sometimes towns were set upon and burned, and 

k sometimes there were deadly conflicts m the depth* 
1 See ante, Introduction. 



338 A DOOMED NATION. [1638. 

of the forests and the passes of the hills. The 
invaders were not always successful. A bloody re- 
buff and a sharp retaliation now and then requited 
them. Thus, in 1638, a war-party of a hundred 
Iroquois met in the forest a band of three hundred 
Huron and Algonquin warriors. They might have 
retreated, and the greater number were for doing 
so ; but Ononkwaya, an Oneida chief, refus(;d. 
" Look ! " he said, " the sky is clear ; the Sun be 
holds us. If there were clouds to hide our shame 
from his sight, we might fly ; but, as it is, we must 
fight while we can." They stood then- ground for 
a time, but were soon overborne. Four or five 
escaped ; but the rest were surrounded, and killed 
or taken. This year, Fortune smiled on the Hu- 
rons ; and they took, in all, more than a hundred 
prisoners, who were distributed among theu' various 
towns, to be burned. These scenes, with them, 
occurred always in the night ; and it was held to 
be of the last importance that the torture should be 
protracted from sunset till dawn. The too valiant 
Ononkwaya was among the victims. Even in death 
he took his revenge ; for it was thought an augury 
of disaster to the victors, if no cry of pam could be 
extorted from the sufferer, and, on the present 
occasion, he displayed an unflinching courage, rare 
even among Indian warriors. His execution took 
place at the town of Teanaustaye, called St. Joseph 
by the Jesuits. The Fathers could not save his 
life, but, what was more to the purpose, they bap- 
tized him. On the scaffold where he was burned, 
he wrought himself into a fury which seemed to 



1638-48.] IROQUOIS AND HURON. 339 

render him insensible to pain. Thinking him 
nearly spent, his tormentors scalped him, when, 
to their amazement, he leaped up, snatched the 
brands that had been the instruments of his tor- 
ture, drove the screeching crowd from the scaffold, 
and held them all at bay, while they pelted him 
from below with sticks, stones, and showers of 
live coals. At length he made a false step and 
fell to the ground, when they seized him and 
threw him into the fire. He instantly leaped out, 
covered with blood, cinders, and ashes, and rushed 
upon them, with a blazing brand in each hand. 
The crowd gave way before him, and he ran 
towards the to'wn, as if to set it on fhe. They 
threw a pole across his way, which tripped him 
and flung him headlong to the earth, on which 
they all fell upon him, cut off his hands and feet, 
and again threw him into the fire. He rolled him- 
self out, and crawled forward on his elbows and 
knees, glaring upon them with such unutterable 
ferocity that they recoiled once more, till, seeing 
that he was helpless, they threw themselves upon 
him, and cut off his head.^ 

When the Iroquois could not win by force, they 
were sometimes more successful with treachery. In 
the summer of 1645, two war-parties of the hostile 
nations met in the forest. The Hurons bore them- 
selves so well that they had nearly gained the day, 
when the Iroquois called for a parley, displayed a 
great number of wampum-belts, and said that they 

1 Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1639, 68. It was this chief whose 
severed hand was thrown to the Jesuits. See ante, p, 137. 



340 A DOOMED NATION. [1638-48. 

wished to treat for peace. The Ilurons had the 
folly to consent. The chiefs on both sides sat down 
to a council, during which the Iroquois, seizing a 
favorable moment, fell upon their dupes and routed 
them completely, killing and capturing a consider- 
able number.^ 

The large frontier town of St. Joseph was well 
fortified with palisades, on which, at intervals, were 
wooden watch-towers. On an evening of this 
same summer of 1645, the Iroquois approached 
the place in force ; and the young Huron warriors, 
mounting then- palisades, sang theh war-songs all 
night, with the utmost power of their lungs, in 
order that the enemy, knowing them to be on their 
guard, might be deterred from an attack. The 
night was dark, and the hideous dissonance re- 
sounded far and wide ; yet, regardless of the din, 
two Iroquois crept close to the palisade, where they 
lay motionless till near dawn. By this time the 
last song had died away, and the tired singers had 
left their posts or fallen asleep. One of the Iro- 
quois, with the silence and agility of a wild-cat, 
climbed to the top of a watch-tower, where he 
found two slumbering Hurons, brained one of them 
with his hatchet, and threw the other down to his 
comrade, who quickly despoiled him of his life and 
his scalp. Then, with the reeking trophies of their 
exploit, the adventurers rejoined thek countrymen 
in the forest. 

The Hurons planned a counter-stroke ; and three 
of them, after a journey of twenty days, reached 

1 Eagueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1646, 55. 



1647.1 DIPLOMACY AND WAK. 341 

the great town of the Senecas. They entered it at 
midnight, and found, as usual, no guard ; hut the 
doors of the houses were made fast. They cut a 
hole in the bark side of one of them, crept in, 
stirred the fading embers to give them light, chose 
each his man, tomahawked him, scalped him, and 
escaped in the confusion.^ 

Despite such petty triumphs, the Hurons felt 
themselves on the verge of ruin. Pestilence and 
war had wasted them away, and left but a skeleton 
of their former strength. In their distress, they 
cast about them for succor, and, remembering an 
ancient friendship with a kindred nation, the An- 
dastes, they sent an embassy to ask of them aid in 
war or intervention to obtain peace. This power- 
ful people dwelt, as has been shown, on the River 
Susquehanna.^ The way was long, even in a direct 
line ; but the Iroquois lay between, and a wide 
circuit was necessary to avoid them. A Christian 
chief, whom the Jesuits had named Charles, to- 
gether with four Christian and four heathen Hurons, 
bearing wampum-belts and gifts from the council, 
departed on this embassy on the thirteenth of April, 
1647, and reached the great town of the Andastes 

1 Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1646, 55, 56. 

2 See Introduction. The Susquehannocks of Smith, clearly the same 
peopl<J, are placed, in his map, on the east side of the Susquehanna, some 
twenty miles from its mouth. He speaks of them as great enemies of the 
Massawomekes (Mohawks). No other savage people so boldly resisted 
the Iroquois ; but the story in Hazard's Annals of Pennsijlvania, that a 
hundred of them beat off sixteen hundred Senecas, is disproved by the 
fact that the Senecas, in their best estate, never had so many warriors. 
The miserable remnant of the Andastes, called Conestogas, were massa« 
cred by the Paxton Boys, in 1763. See " Conspiracy of Pontiac," 414 
Compare Historical Magazine, II. 294. 

29* 



842 A DOOMED NATION. [1647. 

early in .Tune. It contained, as the Jesuits were 
told, no less than thirteen hundred warriors. The 
council assembled, and the chief ambassador ad- 
dressed them : — 

" We come from the Land of Souls, where all 
is gloom, dismay, and desolation. Our fields are 
covered with blood ; our houses are filled only with 
the dead ; and we ourselves have but life enough to 
beg our friends to take pity on a people who are 
di'awing near their end." ^ Then he presented the 
wampum-belts and other gifts, saying that they 
were the voice of a dying country. 

The Andastes, who had a mortal quarrel with the 
Mohawks, and who had before promised to aid 
the Hurons m case of need, returned a favorable 
answer, but were disposed to try the virtue of 
diplomacy rather than the tomahawk. After a 
series of councils, they determined to send ambas- 
sadors, not to their old enemies, the Mohawks, but 
to the Onondagas, Oneidas, and Cayugas,^ who 
were geographically the central nations of the 
Iroquois league, while the Mohawks and the Sene- 
cas were respectively at its eastern and western 
extremities. By inducing the three central nations, ' 

1 " II leur dit qu'il venoit du pays des Ames, oil la guerre et la ter- 
reur des ennemis auoit tout desole, ou les canipagnes n'estoient couuertes 
que de sang, ou les cabanes n'estoient remplies que de cadaures, et qu'il 
ne leur restoit a eux-mesmes de vie, sinon autant qu'ils en auoient eu 
brjsoin pour venir dire a leurs amis, qu'ils eussent pitie d'vn pays qui 
tiroit ti sa fin." — Ragueneau, Relation des Hitrons, 1648, 58. 

'^ Examination leaves no doubt that the Ouiouenronnons of Ragueneau 
{Relulion des Hurons, 1648, 46, 59) were the Oiogouins or Goijogouins, that 
is to say, the Cayugas. They must not be confounded with the Ouen- 
rohroimons, a small tribe hostile to the Ii'oquois, who took refuge among 
the Hurons in 1638. 



1647.] NEW NEGOTIATIONS. 343 

and, if possible, the Senecas also, to conclude a 
treaty with the Hurons, these last would be enabled 
to concentrate their force against the Mohawks, 
whom the Andastes would attack at the same time, 
unless they humbled themselves and made peace. 
This scheme, it will be seen, was based on the 
assumption, that the dreaded league of the Iroquois 
was far from being a unit in action or counsel. 

Charles, with some of his colleagues, now set 
out for home, to report the result of their mission ; 
but the Senecas were lying in wait for them, and 
they were forced to make a wide sweep through 
the Alleghanies, Western Pennsylvania, and appar- 
ently Ohio, to avoid these vigilant foes. It was 
October before they reached the Huron towns, 
and meanwhile hopes of peace had arisen from 
another quarter.^ 

Early in the spring, a band of Onondagas had 
made an inroad, but were roughly handled by the 
Hurons, who killed several of them, captured oth- 
ers, and put the rest to flight. The prisoners were 
burned, with the exception of one who committed 
suicide to escape the torture, and one other, the 
chief man of the party, whose name was Annenrais. 
Some of the Hurons were dissatisfied at the mercy 
sho^vn him, and gave out that they would kill him ; 
on Avhich the chiefs, who never placed themselves 
in open opposition to the popular will, secretly 
fitted him out, made him presents, and aided him 
tc escape at night, with an understanding that he 

1 On this mission of the Hurons to the Andastes, see Eagueneau, 
Relation des Hurons, 1648, 58-60. 



344 A DOOMED NATION. [1647. 

should use his influence at Onondaga in favor 
of peace. After crossing Lake Ontario, he met 
nearly all the Onondaga warriors on the march to 
avenge his supposed death ; for he was a man of 
high account. They greeted him as one risen from 
the grave ; and, on his part, he persuaded them to 
renounce their warlike purpose and return home. 
On their arrival, the chiefs and old men were 
called to council, and the matter was debated with 
the usual deliberation. 

About this time the ambassador of the Andastes 
appeared with his wampum-belts. Both this nation 
and the Onondagas had secret motives which were 
perfectly in accordance. The Andastes hated the 
Mohawks as enemies, and the Onondagas were jeal- 
ous of them ' as confederates ; for, since they had 
armed themselves with Dutch guns, theu' arrogance 
and boastings had given umbrage to their brethren 
of the league ; and a peace with the Hurons would 
leave the latter free to turn their undiAdded strength 
against the Mohaw^ks, and cui'b their insolence. 
The Oneidas and the Cayugas were of one mind 
with the Onondagas. Three nations of the league, 
to satisfy their spite against a fourth, would strike 
hands with the common enemy of all. It was 
resolved to send an embassy to the Hurons. Yet 
it may be, that, after all, the Onondagas had bul 
half a mind for peace. At least, they were un- 
fortunate in their choice of an ambassador. He 
was by birth a Huron, who, having been captured 
wlien a boy, adopted and naturalized, had become 
more an Iroquois than the Iroquois themselves ; 



1547.] THE IROQUOIS AMBASSADOR. 345 

and scarcely one of the fierce confederates had 
shed so much Huron blood. When he reached 
the town of St. Ignace, which he did about mid- 
summer, and delivered his messages and wampum- 
belts, there was a great division of opinion among 
the Ilurons. The Bear Nation — the member of 
iheh confederacy which was farthest from the Iro- 
quois, and least exposed to danger — was for re- 
jecting overtures made by so offensive an agency; 
but those of the Hurons who had suffered most 
were eager for peace at any price, and, after 
solemn deliberation, it was resolved to send an 
embassy in return. At its head was placed a 
Christian chief named Jean Baptiste Atironta ; and 
on the first of August he and four others departed 
for Onondaga, carrying a profusion of presents, and 
accompanied by the apostate envoy of the Iroquois. 
As the ambassadors had to hunt on the way for 
subsistence, besides making canoes to cross Lake 
Ontario, it was twenty days before they reached 
their destination. When they arrived, there was 
great jubilation, and, for a full month, nothing but 
councils. Having thus sifted the matter to the 
bottom, the Onondagas determined at last to send 
another embassy with Jean Baptiste on his return, 
and with them fifteen Huron prisoners, as an ear- 
nest of theu' good intentions, retaining, on their 
part, one of Baptiste's colleagues as a hostage. 
This time they chose for their envoy a chief of 
their own nation, named Scandawati, a man of 
renown, sixty years of age, joining with him two 
colleagues. The old Onondaga entered on his 



346 A DOOMED NATION [1647 

mission with, a troubled mind. His anxiety was 
not so much for his life as for his honor and dig- 
nity ; for, while the Oneidas and the Cayugas were 
acting in concurrence with the Onondagas, the 
Senecas had refused any part in the embassy, and 
still breathed nothing but war. Would they, or 
still more the Mohawks, so far forget the consid- 
eration due to one whose name had been great in 
the councils of the Let^gue as to assault the Hu- 
rons while he was among them in the character 
of an ambassador of his nation, whereby his honor 
would be compromised and his life endangered? 
His mind brooded on this idea, and he told one of 
his colleagues, that, if such a slight were put upon 
him, he should die of mortification. " I am not a 
dead dog," he said, " to be despised and forgotten. 
I am worthy that all men should turn their eyes 
on me while I am among enemies, and do nothing 
that may involve me in danger." 

What with hunting, fishing, canoe-making, and 
bad weather, the progress of the august travellers 
was so slow, that they did not reach the Huron 
towns till the twenty-third of October. Scanda- 
wati presented seven large belts of wampum, each 
i;omposed of three or four thousand beads, which 
die Jesuits call the pearls and diamonds of the 
country. He delivered, too, the fifteen captives, 
and promised a hundred more on the final conclu- 
sion of peace. The three Onondagas remained, as 
surety for the good faith of those who sent them, 
until the beginning of January, when the Hurons 
on their part sent six ambassadors to conclude the 



1648.J IROQUOIS SUICIDE. 847 

treaty, one of the Onondagas accompanying them. 
Soon there came dire tidings. The prophetic heart 
of the old chief had not deceived him. The Sen- 
ecas and Mohawks, disregarding negotiations in 
which they had no part, and resolved to bring 
them to an end, were invading the country in 
force. It might be thought that the Hurons woidd 
take their revenge on the Onondaga envoys, now 
hostages among them ; but they did not do so, for 
the character of an ambassador was, for the most 
part, held in respect. One morning, however, 
Scandawati had disappeared. They were full of 
excitement ; for they thought that he had escaped 
to the enemy. They ranged the woods in search 
of him, and at length found him in a thicket near 
the town. He lay dead, on a bed of spruce-boughs 
which he had made, his throat deeply gashed with 
a knife. He had died by his own hand, a victim 
of mortified pride. " See," writes Father E.ague- 
neau, " how much our Indians stand on the point 
of honor ! " ^ 

We have seen that one of his two colleagues 
had set out for Onondaga with a deputation of six 
Hurons. This party was met by a hundred Mo- 
hawks, who captured them all and killed the six 
Hurons, but spared the Onondaga, and compelled 
him to join them. Soon after, they made a sudden 
onset on about three hundred Hurons journeying 
through the forest from the town of St. Ignace ; 
and, as many of them were women, they routed 

1 This remarkable story is told by Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 
1648, 5G-58. He was present at the time, and knew all the circumstances. 



348 



A DOOMED NATION. 



[1648. 



the whole, and took forty prisoners. The Onon- 
daga bore part in the fray, and captured a Chris- 
tian Huron girl ; but the next day he insisted on 
returning to the Huron town. " Kill me, if you 
will," he said to the Mohawks, "but I cannot follow 
you ; for then I should be ashamed to appear among 
my countrymen, who sent me on a message of 
peace to the Hurons ; and I must die with them, 
sooner than seem to act as their enemy." On this, 
the jNIohawks not only permitted him to go, but 
gave him the Huron girl whom he had taken ; and 
the Onondaga led her back in safety to her country- 
men.^ Here, then, is a ray of light out of Egyp- 
tian darkness. The principle of honor was not 
extinct in these wild hearts. 

We hear no more of the negotiations between 
the Onondagas and the Hurons. They and their 
results were swept away in the storm of events 
soon to be related. 



1 " Cehiy qui I'auoit prise estoit Onnontaeronnon, qui estant icy en 08 
tage a cause de la paix qui se traite auec les Onnontaeronnons, et s'estant 
trouue auec nos Hurons a cctte chasse, y fut pris tout des premiers par les 
Sonnontoueronnons {Annieronnons?), qui I'ayans reconnu ne luy firent 
aucun mal, et mesme robligerent de les suiure et prendre part a leur vic- 
toire ; et ainsi en ce rencontre cct Onnontaei-onnon auoit fait sa prise, 
tenement neantmoins qu'il desira s'en retourner le lendemain, disant aux 
Sonnontoueronnons qu'ils le tuassent s'ils vouloient, mais qu'il ne pouuoit 
se resoudre a les suiure, et qu'il auroit houte de reparoistre en son pays, 
les affaires qui I'auoient amene aux Hurons pour la paix ne permettant pas 
qu'il fist autre cliose que de mourir avec eux plus tost que de paroistre 
s'estre comporte' en ennemy. Ainsi les Sonnontoueronnons luy permirent 
de s'en retourner et de ramener cette bonne Chrestienne, qui estoit sa 
captiue, laquelle nous a console par le recit des entretiens de ces pauures 
gens dans leur affliction." — Ragueneau, Belation des Hurons, 1648, 65. 

Apparently the word Sonnontoueronnons (Senecas), in the above, should 
read Annieronnons (Mohawks) ; for, on pp. 50, 57, the writer twice speaks 
of the party as Mohawks. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

1645-1648. 
THE HURON CHURCH. 

Hopes op the Mission. — Cukistian and Heathkn. — Bodt and 
Soul. — Position of Peosei.ytes. — The Huron Girl's Visit 
TO Heaven. — A Crisis. — Huron Justice. — Murder and 
Atonement. — Hopes and Fears. 

How did it fare with the missions in these days 
of woe and terror? They had thriven beyond 
hope. The Hurons, in their time of trouble, had 
become tractable. They humbled themselves, and, 
in their desolation and despair, came for succor to 
the priests. There was a harvest of converts, not 
only exceeding in numbers that of all former years, 
but giving in many cases undeniable proofs of sin- 
cerity and fervor. In some towns the Christians 
outnumbered the heathen, and in nearly all they 
formed a strong party. The mission of La Concep- 
tion, or Ossossane, was the most successful. Here 
there were now a church and one or more resident 
Jesuits, — as also at St. Joseph, St. Ignace, St. 
Michel, and St. Jean Baptiste : ^ for we have seen 
that the Huron towns were christened with names 
of saints. Each church had its bell, which was 

1 Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1646, 56. 

30 [349] 



350 THE HURON CHURCH. [1615-48. 

sometimes hung in a neighboring tree.^ Every 
morning it rang its summons to mass ; and, issu- 
ing from their dwellings of bark, the converts 
gathered within the sacred precinct, where the 
bare, rude Avails, fresh from the axe and saw, con- 
trasted with the sheen of tinsel and gilding, and 
the hues of gay draperies and gaudy pictures. At 
evening they met again at prayers ; and on Sun- 
day, masses, confession, catechism, sermons, and 
repeating the rosary consumed the whole day.^ 

These converts rarely took part in the burning 
of prisoners. On the contrary, they sometimes set 
their faces against the practice ; and on one occa- 
sion, a certain Etienne Totiri, while his heathen 
countrymen were tormenting a captive Iroquois at 
St. Ignace, boldly denounced them, and promised 
them an eternity of flames and demons, unless they 
desisted. Not content with this, he addressed an 
exhortation to the sufferer in one of the intervals 
of his torture. The dying wretch demanded bap- 
tism, which Etienne took it upon himself to ad- 
minister, amid the hootings of the crowd, who, as 
he ran with a cup of water from a neighboring 
house, pushed him to and fro to make him spill it, 
crying out, " Let him alone ! Let the devils burn 
him after we have done ! " ^ 

* A fragment of one of these bells, found on the site of a Huron town, 
is preserved in the museum of Huron relics at the Laval University, 
Queboc. The bell was not large, but was of very elaboi-ate workman- 
ship. Before 1644 the Jesuits had used old copper kettles as a substitute. 
— Lettre de Lalemant, 31 March, 1644. 

2 Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1646, 56. 

3 Ihid., 58. The Hurons often resisted the baptism of their prisoners, 
on the ground that Hell, and not Heaven, was the place to which they 



1645-48.] THE TORTURE. 351 

Tn regard to these atrocious scenes, which formed 
the favorite Huron recreation of a summer night, 
the Jesuits, it must be confessed, did not quite 
come up to the requirements of modern sensibihty. 
They were offended at them, it is true, and pre- 
vented them when they could ; but they were 
wholly given to the saving of souls, and held the 
body in scorn, as the "\dle source of incalculal)le 
mischief, worthy the worst inflictions that could be 
put upon it. What were a few hours of suffering 
to an eternity of bliss or woe 1 If the victim were 
heathen, these brief pangs were but the faint pre- 
lude of an undying flame ; and if a Christian, 
they were the fiery portal of Heaven. They 
might, indeed, be a blessing ; since, accepted in 
atonement for sin, they would shorten the torments 
of Purgatory. Yet, while schooling themselves to 
despise the body, and all the pain or pleasure that 
pertained to it, the Fathers were emphatic on one 
point. It must not be eaten. In the matter of 
cannibalism, they were loud and vehement in in- 
vective.^ 



would have them go. — See Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1642, 60, Ra- 
gueneau, Ibid., 1648, 53, and several other passages. 

1 The following curious case of conversion at the stake, gravely re 
lated by Lalemant, is worth preserving. 

"An Iroquois was to be burned at a town some Avay off. What con- 
solation to sat forth, in the hottest summer weather, to deliver this poor 
victim from the hell prepared for him ! The Father approaches him, and 
instructs him even in the midst of his torments. Forthwith the Faith 
finds a place in his heart. He recognizes and adores, as the author of his 
life, Hmi whose name he had never heard till the hour of his death. He 
receives the grace of baptism, and breathes nothing but heaven. . . . 
This newly made, but generous Christian, mounted on the scafiTold which 
is the place of his torture, in the sight of a thousand sjiectators, who are 



352 



THE HURON CHURCH. 



[1645-48. 



Undeniably, the Faith was making progress ; yet 
it is not to be supposed that its path was a smooth 
one. The old opposition and the old calumnies 
were still alive and active. " It is la priere that 
kills us. Your books and your strings of beads 
have bewitched the country. Before you came, we 
were happy and prosperous. You are magicians. 
Your charms kill our corn, and bring sickness and 
the Iroquois. Echon (Brebeuf ) is a traitor among 
us, in league with our enemies." Such discourse 
was still rife, openly and secretly. 

The Huron who embraced the Faith renounced 
thenceforth, as we have seen, the feasts, dances, 
and games in which was his delight, since all 
these savored of diabolism. And if, being in 
health, he could not enjoy himself, so also, being 
sick, he could not be cured ; for his physician was 
a sorcerer, whose medicines were charms and in- 
cantations. If the convert was a chief, his case 
was far worse ; since, writes Father Lalemant, " to 
be a chief and a Christian is to combine water and 
fire ; for the business of the chiefs is mainly to do 
the Devil's bidding, preside over ceremonies of hell, 
and excite the young Indians to dances, feasts, and 
shameless indecencies." ^ 

at once his enemies, his judges, and his executioners, raises his eyes and 
his voice heavenward, and cries aloud, ' Sun, Avho art witness of my tor- 
ments, hear my words ! I am about to die ; but, after my death, I shall 
go to dwell in heaven.' " — Relation des Hiirons, 1641, 67. 

The Sun, it will be remembered, was the god of the heathen Iroquois. 
The convert appealed to his old deity to rejoice with him in his happy 
future. 

1 Relation des Ilurons, 1642, 89. The indecencies alluded to were 
chieiiy naked dances, of a superstitious character, and the mystical cure 
called Andacwandet, before mentioned. 



1G45-48.] THE FRENCH HEAVEN. 353 

It is not surprising, then, that proselytes were 
difficult to make, or that, being made, they often 
relapsed. The Jesuits complain that they had no 
means of controlling their converts, and coercing 
backsliders to stand fast ; and they add, that the 
Iroquois, by destroying the fur-trade, had broken 
the pruicipal bond between the Hurons and the 
French, and greatly weakened the influence of 
the mission.^ 

Among the slanders devised by the heathen party 
against the teachers of the obnoxious doctrine was 
one which found wide credence, even among the 
converts, and produced a great efiect. They gave 
out that a baptized Huron girl, who had lately died, 
and was buried in the cemetery at Sauite Marie, had 
returned to life, and given a deplorable account of 
the heaven of the French. No sooner had she 
entered, — such was the story, — than they seized 
her, chained her to a stake, and tormented her all 
day with inconceivable cruelty. They did the 
same to all the other converted Hurons ; for this 
was the recreation of the French, and especially of 
the Jesuits, in theh celestial abode. They baptized 
Indians with no other object than that they might 
have them to torment in heaven ; to which end 
they were willing to meet hardships and dangers in 
this life, just as a war-party invades the enemy's 
country at great risk that it may bring home pris- 
oners to burn. After her painful experience, an 
unknown friend secretly showed the ghl a path 
down to the earth ; and she hastened thither to 

1 Lettre du P. Hierosme Lalemant, appended to the Relation of 1G45. 
30* 



w 



354 THE HURON CHURCH. [1648. 

warn her countrymen against tlie wiles of tlie mis- 
sionaries.^ 

In the spring of 1618 the excitement of the 
heathen party reached a crisis. A young French- 
man, named Jacques Douart, in the service of the 
mission, going out at evening a short distance 
from the Jesuit house of Sainte Marie, was toma- 
hawked by unknown Indians,^ who proved to be 
two brothers, instigated by the heathen chiefs. A 
great commotion followed, and for a few days it 
seemed that the adverse parties would fall to blows, 
at a time when the common enemy threatened to 
destroy them both. But sager counsels prevailed. 
In view of the manifest strength of the Christians, 
the pagans lowered their tone ; and it soon be- 
came apparent that it was the part of the Jesuits to 
insist boldly on satisfaction for the outrage. They 
made no demand that the murderers should be 
punished or surrendered, but, with their usual good 
sense in such matters, conformed to Indian usage, 
and requhed that the nation at large should make 
atonement for the crime by presents.^ The num- 
ber of these, their value, and the mode of delivering 
them were all fixed by ancient custom ; and some of 
the converts, acting as counsel, advised the Fathers 
of every step it behooved them to take in a case of 
such importance. As this is the best illustration 
of Huron justice on record, it may be well to ob- 

1 Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1646, 65. 

2 Ihld., 1648, 77. Compare Leltre da P. Jean de Br^beuf au T. R. P. 
Vincent Carafa, General de la Compagnie de Jesus, Sainte Maiie, 2 Juin, 
1648, in Carayon. 

* See Introduction. 



1648.] MURDEE AND ATONEMENT. 355 

serve the method of procedure, — recollecting that 
the public, and not the criminal, was to pay the 
forfeit of the crime. 

First of all, the Huron chiefs summoned the 
Jesuits to meet them at a grand council of the na- 
tion, when an old orator, chosen by the rest, rose 
and addressed Ragueneau, as chief of the French, 
in the following harangue. Ragueneau, who re- 
ports it, declares that he has added nothing to 
it, and the translation is as literal as possible. 

" My Brother," began the speaker, "behold all the 
tribes of our league assembled ! " — and he named 
them one by one. " We are but a handful ; you are 
the prop and stay of this nation. A thunderbolt 
has fallen from the sky, and rent a chasm in the 
earth. We shall fall into it, if you do not support 
us. Take pity on us. We are here, not so much 
to speak as to weep over our loss and yours. Our 
country is but a skeleton, without flesh, veins, 
sinews, or arteries ; and its bones hang together 
by a thread. This thread is broken by the blow 
that has fallen on the head of your nephew,^ 
for whom we weep. It was a demon of Hell who 
placed the hatchet in the murderer's hand. Was 
it you. Sun, whose beams shine on us, who led 
him to do this deed? Why did you not darken 
your light, that he might be stricken with horror 
at his crime? Were you his accomplice? No; 
for he walked in darkness, and did not see where 



1 The usual Indian figure in such cases, and not meant to express an 
actual relationship j — " Uncle " for a superior, " Brother " for an equal, 
" Nephew " for an inferior 



356 THE HURON CHURCH. [1648. 

he struck. He thought, this wretched murderer, 
that he aimed at the head of a young Frenchman ; 
but the blow fell upon his country, and gave it a 
death-wound. The earth opens to receive the 
blood of the innocent victim, and we shall be swal- 
lowed up in the chasm ; for we are all guilty. 
The Iroquois rejoice at his death, and celebrate 
it as a triumph ; for they see that our weapons 
are turned against each other, and know well that 
our nation is near its end. 

" Brother, take pity on this nation. You alone 
can restore it to life. It is for you to gather up all 
these scattered bones, and close this chasm that 
opens to ingulf us. Take pity on your country. 
I call it yours, for you are the master of it; and we 
came here like criminals to receive your sentence, 
if you will not show us mercy. Pity those who 
condemn themselves and come to ask forgiveness. 
It is you who have given strength to the nation by 
dwelling with it ; and if you leave us, we shall be 
like a wisp of straw torn from the ground to be the 
sport of the wind. This country is an island drift- 
ing on the waves, for the first storm to overwhelm 
and sink. Make it fast again to its foundation, 
and posterity will never forget to praise you. 
When we first heard of this murder, we could 
do nothing but weep ; and we are ready to re- 
ceive your orders and comply with your demands. 
Speak, then, and ask what satisfaction you will, for 
our lives and our possessions are yours ; and even if 
we rob our children to satisfy you, we will tell them 
that it is not of you that they have to complain, 



104S.J MURDEE AND ATONEMENT. 357 

but of him whose crime has made us all guilty. 
Our anger is against him ; but for } ou we feel 
nothing but love. He destroyed our lives ; and you 
will restore them, if you will but speak and tell us 
what you will have us do." 

Eagueneau, who remarks that this harangue is 
a proof that eloquence is the gift of Nature rather 
than of Art, made a reply, which he has not re- 
corded, and then gave the speaker a bundle of small 
sticks, indicating the number of presents which 
he required in satisfaction for the murder. These 
sticks were distributed among the various tribes in 
the council, in order that each might contribute 
its share toAvards the indemnity. The council dis 
solved, and the chiefs went home, each with his 
allotment of sticks, to collect in his village a cor- 
responding number of presents. There was no 
constraint ; those gave who chose to do so ; but, 
as all were ambitious to show their public spirit, 
the contributions were ample. No one thought of 
molesting the murderers. Their punishment was 
their shame at the sacrifices which the public were 
making in their behalf. 

The presents being ready, a day was set for the 
ceremony of their delivery ; and crowds gathered 
from all parts to witness it. The assembly was 
convened in the open ah, in a field beside the m^is- 
sion-house of Sainte Marie ; and, in the midst, the 
chiefs held solemn council. Towards evening, they 
deputed foru: of their number, two Christians and 
two heathen, to carry thek address to the Father 
Superior. They came, loaded with presents; but 



358 THE HURON CHURCH. [1648. 

these \^ere merely preliminary. One was to open 
the door, another for leave to enter ; and as 
Sainte Marie was a large house, with several in- 
terior doors, at each one of which it behooved 
them to repeat this formality, their stock of gifts 
became seriously reduced before they reached the 
room where Father Ragueneau awaited them. On 
arriving, they made him a speech, every clause of 
which was confirmed by a present. The first was 
to wipe away his tears ; the second, to restore his 
voice, which his grief was supposed to have im- 
paired ; the third, to calm the agitation of his 
mind ; and the fourth, to allay the just anger of 
his heart. ^ These gifts consisted of wampum and 
the large shells of which it was made, together 
with other articles, worthless in any eyes but those 
of an Indian. Nine additional presents followed : 
four for the four posts of the sepulchre or scaffold 
of the murdered man ; four for the cross-pieces 
which connected the posts ; and one for a pillow 
to support his head. Then came eight more, cor- 
responding to the eight largest bones of the victim's 
body, and also to the eight clans of the Hurons.^ 
Ragueneau, as requhed by established custom, now 
made them a present in his turn. It consisted of 
tliree thousand beads of wampu.m, and w^as de- 
signed to soften the earth, in order that they might 
not be hurt, when falling upon it, overpowered by 

1 Ragueneau himself describes the scene. Relation des Surons, 
1648, 80. 

2 Ragueneau says, " les huit nations " ; but, as the Hurons consisted 
of only four, or at most five, nations, he probably means the clans. For 
the nature of these divisions, see Introduction. 



1648.] MURDER AND ATONEMENT. 359 

his reproaches for the enormity of their crime. 
This closed the interview, and the deputation with- 
drew. 

The grand ceremony took place on the next day. 
A kind of arena had been prepared, and here were 
hung the fifty presents in which the atonement 
essentially consisted, — the rest, amounting to as 
many more, being only accessory.^ The Jesuits 
had the right of examining them all, rejecting any 
that did not satisfy them, and demanding others in 
place of them. The naked crowd sat silent and 
attentive, w^hile the orator in the midst delivered 
the fifty presents in a series of harangues, which 
the tired listener has not thought it necessary to 
preserve. Then came the minor gifts, each with 
its signification explained in turn by the speaker. 
First, as a sepulchre had been provided the day 
before for the dead man, it was now necessary to 
clothe and equip him for his journey to the next 
world ; and to this end three presents were made. 
They represented a hat, a coat, a shirt, breeches, 
stockings, shoes, a gun, powder, and bullets ; but 
they were in fact something quite different, as 
wampum, beaver-skins, and the like. Next came 
several gifts to close up the wounds of the slain. 
Then followed three more. The first closed the 
chasm in the earth, which had burst through horror 
of the crime. The next trod the ground firm, that 
it might not open again; and here the whole assem- 

1 The number was unusually large, — partly because the affair waa 
thought very important, and partly because the murdered man belonged 
to another nation. See Introduction. 



360 THE HURON CHURCH. [1648. 

bly rose and danced, as cnstom required. The last 
placed a large stone over the closed gulf, to make 
it doubly secure. 

Now came another series of presents, seven in 
number, — to restore the voices of all the mission- 
aries, — to invite the men in their service to forget 
the murder, — to appease the Governor when he 
should hear of it, — to light the the at Sainte 
Marie, — to open the gate, — to launch the ferry- 
boat in which the Huron visitors crossed the river, 
— and to give back the paddle to the boy who had 
charge of the boat. The Fathers, it seems, had the 
right of exacting two more presents, to rebuild 
their house and church, — supposed to have been 
shaken to the earth by the late calamity ; but they 
forbore to urge the claim. Last of all were three 
gifts to confii'm all the rest, and to entreat the Jesu- 
its to cherish an undvinsr love for the Hurons. 

The priests on their part gave presents, as tokens 
of good-will ; and with that the assembly dispersed. 
The mission had gained a triumph, and its influence 
was greatly strengthened. The future would have 
been full of hope, but for the portentous cloud of 
war that rose, black and wrathful, from where lay 
the dens of the Iroquois. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

1648, 1649. 
SAINTE MARIE. 

The Centre of the Missions. — Fort. — Convent. — Hospital. — 
Caravansary. — Church. — The Inmates of Saxnte JIarib.— 
Domestic Economy. — Missions. — A Meeting of Jesuits.^— 
The Dead Missionary. 

The River Wye enters the Bay of Glocester, 
an inlet of the Bay of Matchedash, itself an inlet 
of the vast Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. Retrace 
the track of two centuries and more, and ascend 
this little stream in the summer of the year 1648. 
Your vessel is a bhch canoe, and your conductor a 
Huron Indian. On the right hand and on the left, 
gloomy and silent, rise the primeval woods ; but 
you have advanced scarcely half a league when the 
scene is changed, and cultivated fields, planted 
chiefly with maize, extend far along the bank, and 
back to the distant verge of the forest. Before 
you opens the small lake from which the stream 
issues ; and on your left, a stone's throw from the 
shore, rises a range of palisades and bastioned 
walls, inclosing a number of buildings. Your 

31 [361] 



362 SAINTE MARIE. [1648. 

canoe enters a canal or ditch immediately above 
them, and you land at the Mission, or Residence, 
or Fort of Sainte Marie. 

Here was the centre and base of the Huron 
missions ; and now, for once, one must wish that 
Jesuit pens had been more fluent. They have told 
us but little of Sainte Marie, and even this is to be 
gathered chiefly from incidental allusions. In the 
forest, which long since has resumed its reign over 
this memorable spot, the walls and ditches of the 
fortifications may still be plainly traced ; and the 
deductions from these remains are in j)erfect accord 
with what we can gather from the Relations and 
letters of the priests.^ The fortified work which 
inclosed the buildings was in the form of a par- 
allelogram, about a hundred and seventy-five feet 
long, and from eighty to ninety wide. It lay par- 
allel Avith the river, and somewhat more than a 
hundred feet distant from it. On two sides it was 
a continuous wall of masonry,^ flanked with square 
bastions, adapted to musketry, and probably used 
as magazines, storehouses, or lodgings. The sides 
towards the river and the lake had no other 
defences than a ditch and palisade, flanked, like 
the others, by bastions, over each of which was 
displayed a large cross. ^ The buildings within 



1 Before me is an elaborate plan of the remains, taken on the spot. 

2 It seems probable that the walls, of which the remains may still be 
traced, were foundations supporting a wooden superstructure. Itague- 
neau, in a letter to the General of the Jesuits, dated March 13, 1650, 
alludes to the defences of Saint Marie as " une simple palissade." 

3 " Quatre grandes Croix qui sont aux quatre coins de nostre en- 
clos." — Eagueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1648, 81. 



1648.] . ITS INMATES. " 363 

were, no doubt, of wood; and they included a 
church, a kitchen, a refectory, places of retreat for 
religious instruction and meditation,^ and lodgings 
for at least sixty persons. Near the church, but 
outside the fortification, was a cemetery. Beyond 
the ditch or canal which opened on the river was 
a large area, still traceable, in the form of an ir- 
regular triangle, surrounded by a ditch, and appar- 
ently by palisades. It seems to have been meant 
for the protection of the Indian visitors who came 
in throngs to Sainte Marie, and who were lodged in. 
a large house of bark, after the Huron manner.^ 
Here, perhaps, was also the hospital, which was 
placed without the walls, in order that Indian 
women, as well as men, might be admitted into it.^ 
No doubt the buildings of Sainte Marie were of 
the roughest, — rude walls of boards, windows 
without glass, vast chimneys of unhewn stone. 
All its riches were centred in the church, which, 
as Lalemant tells us, was regarded by the Indians 
as one of the wonders of the world, but which, he 
adds, would have made but a beggarly show in 
France. Yet one wonders, at first thought, how 
so much labor could have been accomplished here. 



1 It seems that these places, besides those for the priests, were of two 
kinds, — " vne retraite pour les pelerins (Indians), enfin vn lieu plus sepa- 
re', oil les infideles, qui n'y sont admis que de iour au passage, y puissent 
tousioury reeeuoir quelque bon mot pour leur salut." — Lalemant, 2?e/a- 
tion des Hurons, 1644, 74. 

'^ At least it was so in 1642. "Nous leur auons dresse vn Hospice ou 
Cabane d'ecorce." — Ibid., 1642, 57. 

3 " Cet hospital est tellement separe de nostra demeure, que non 
seulement les hommes et enfans, mais les femmes y peuuent estre ad- 
m\scs." — Ibid., 1644, 74. 



364 SAINTE MARIE. [1648. 

Of late years, however, the number of men at the 
command of the mission had been considerable. 
Soldiers had been sent up from time to time, to 
escort the Fathers on their way, and defend them 
on their arrival. Thus, in 1644, jNIontmagny or- 
dered twenty men of a reinforcement just arrived 
from France to escort Brebeuf, Garreau, and Cha- 
banel to the Hurons, and remain there during the 
winter.^ These soldiers lodged with the Jesuits, 
and lived at thek table. ^ It was not, however, on 
detachments of troops that they mainly relied for 
labor or defence. Any inhabitant of Canada who 
chose to undertake so hard and dangerous a service 
was allowed to do so, receiving only his mainten- 
ance from the mission, wdthout pay. In return, he 
was allowed to trade with the Indians, and sell the 
furs thus obtained at the magazine of the Company, 
at a fixed price.^ Many availed themselves of this 
permission ; and all whose services were accepted 
by the Jesuits seem to have been men to whom 
they had communicated no small portion of their 
own zeal, and who were enthusiastically attached 
to their Order and theh cause. There is abundant 
evidence that a large proportion of them acted from 
motives wholly disinterested. They were, in fact, 
donnes of the mission,"* — given, heart and hand, to 

1 Vimont, Relation, 164:4, 49. He adds, that some of these soldiers, 
though they had once been " assez mauvais garfons," had shown great 
zeal and devotion in behalf of the mission. 

2 Journal des Superieurs des Jesuites, MS. In 1648, a small cannon 
was sent to Sainte Marie in the Huron canoes. — Ibid. 

3 Registres des Arrets da Conseil, extract in Faillon, II. 94. 

* See ante, p. 214. Gamier calls them " seculiers d'habit, mais relig- 
ieux de cceur. — Lettres, MSS. 



1648.] "DONNES" OF TIIE MISSION. 365 

its service. There is probability in the conjecture, 
that the profits of their trade with the Indians were 
reaped, not for their own behoof, but for that of 
the mission.^ It is difficult otherwise to explain 
the confidence with which the Father Superior, in 
a letter to the General of the .Jesuits at Rome, 
speaks of its resources. He says, " Though our 
number is greatly increased, and though we still 
hope for more men, and especially for more priests 
of our Society, it is not necessary to increase the 
pecuniary aid given us." ~ 

1 The Jesuits, even at this early period, were often and loudly charged 
with sharing in tlie fur-trade. It is certain that this charge was not 
wholly without foundation. Le Jeune, in the Relation of 1657, speaking 
of the wampum, guns, powder, lead, hatchets, kettles, and other articles 
which the missionaries were obliged to give to the Indians, at councils 
and elsewhere, says that these must be bought from the traders with 
beaver-skins, which are the money of the country ; and he adds, " Que 
si vn lesuite en refoit ou en recueille quelques-vns pour ayder aux frais 
immenses qu'il faut faire dans ces Missions si eloignees, et ponr gagner 
ces peuples a lesus-Christ et les porter a la paix, il seroit a souhaiter que 
ceux-la mesme qui deuroient faire ces despenses pour la conseruation du 
pays, ne fussent pas du moins les premiers "a condamner le zele de ces 
Peres, et a les rendre par leurs discours plus noirs que leurs robes." — 
Relation, 1657, 16. 

In the same year, Chaumontt, addressing a council of the Iro(juois 
during a period of truce, said, " Keep your beaver-skins, if you choose, 
for the Dutch. Even such of them as may fall into our possession will 
be employed for your service." — Ibid., 17. 

In 1636, Le Jeune thought it necessary to write a long letter of de- 
fence against the charge ; and in 1643, a declaration, appended to the 
Relation of that year, and certifying that the Jesuits took no part in the 
fur-trade, was drawn up and signed by twelve members of the Company 
of New France. Its only meaning is, that the Jesuits were neither partners 
nor rivals of the Company's monopoly. They certainly bought supplies 
from its magazines with furs which they obtained from the Indians. 

Their object evidently was to make the mission partially self-sup 
porting. To impute mercenary motives to Garnier, Jogues, and their 
co-laborers, is manifestly idle; but, even in the highest flights of his 
enthusiasm, the Jesuit never forgot his worldly wisdom. 

2 Letlre du P. Paid Ragiieneau au T. R. P. Vincent Carafa, G^n^al 

31* 



366 SAINTE MARIE. [1648-49 

jMuch of this prosperity was no doubt due to the 
excellent management of their resources, and a 
very successful agriculture. While the Indians 
around them were starving, they raised maize in 
such quantities, that, in the spring of 1649, the 
Father Superior thought that their stock of provis- 
ions might suffice for three years. " Hunting and 
fishing," he says, "are better than heretofore"; and 
he adds, that they had fowls, swine, and even cattle.^ 
How they could have brought these last to Sainte 
Marie it is difficult to conceive. The feat, under 
the circumstances, is truly astonishing. Everything 
indicates a fixed resolve on the part of the Fathers 
to build up a solid and permanent establishment. 

It is by no means to be inferred that the house- 
hold fared sumptuously. Their ordinary food was 
maize, pounded and boiled, and seasoned, in the 
absence of salt, which was regarded as a luxury, 
with morsels of smoked fish.^ 

In March, 1649, there were in the Huron country 
and its neighborhood eighteen Jesuit priests, four 
lay brothers, twenty-three men serving without pay, 
seven hired men, four boys, and eight soldiers.^ 
Of this number, fifteen priests were engaged in the 
various missions, while all the rest were retained 
permanently at Sainte Marie. All was method, 

de la Compagnie de J€sus a Rome, Sainte Marie aux Hurons, 1 Mars, 1649 
(Carayon). 

1 Ibid. 2 Eagueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1648, 48. 

* See the report of the Father Superior to the General, above cited,. 
The number was greatly increased within the year. In April, 1648, 
Ragueneau reports but forty-two French in all, including priests. Be- 
fore the end of the summer a large reinforcement came up in the Huron 
canoes. 



1648-49.] CHARITY AND CONVERSION. 367 

discipline, and subordination. Some of the men 
were assigned to household work, and some to the 
hospital ; while the rest labored at the fortifications, 
tilled the fields, and stood ready, in case of need, to 
fight the Iroquois. The Father Superior, with two 
other priests as assistants, controlled and guided 
all. The remaining Jesuits, undisturbed by tem- 
poral cares, were devoted exclusively to the charge 
of their respective missions. Two or three times in 
the year, they all, or nearly all, assembled at Sainte 
Marie, to take counsel together and determine their 
future action. Hither, also, they came at inter- 
vals for a period of meditation and prayer, to nerve 
themselves and gain new inspiration for their stern 
task. 

Besides being the citadel and the magazine of 
the mission, Sainte Marie was the scene of a boun- 
tiful hospitality. On every alternate Saturday, as 
well as on feast-days, the converts came in crowds 
trom the farthest villages. They were entertained 
during Saturday, Sunday, and a part of Monday ; 
and the rites of the Church were celebrated before 
them with all possible solemnity and pomp. They 
were welcomed also at other times, and entertained, 
usually with three meals to each. In these latter 
years the prevailing famine drove them to Sainte 
Marie in swarms. In the course of 1647 three 
thousand were lodged and fed here ; and in the 
following year the number was doubled.^ Heathen 
Indians were also received and supplied with food, 

1 Compare Ragueneau in Relation des Hurons, 1648, 48, and in hia 
report to tlie General in 1649. 



368 SAINTE MARIE. [1G48. 

but were not permitted to remain at niglit. There 
was j)royision for the soul as well as the body ; and, 
Christian or heathen, few left Sainte Marie with- 
out a word of instruction or exhortation. Charity 
was an instrument of conversion. 

Such, so far as we can reconstruct it from the 
scattered hints remaining, was this singular estab- 
lishment, at once military, monastic, and patriarchal. 
The missions of which it w^as the basis were now 
eleven in number. To those among the Hurons 
akeady mentioned another had lately been added, 
— that of Sainte Madeleme ; and two others, called 
St. Jean and St. Matthias, had been established in 
the neighboring Tobacco Nation.^ The three re- 
maining missions were all among tribes speaking 
the Algonquin languages. Every winter, bands of 
these savages, driven by famme and fear of the 
Iroquois, sought harborage in the Huron country, 
and the mission of Sainte Elisabeth was established 
for their benefit. The next Algonquin mission was 
that of Saint Esprit, embracing the Nipissings and 
other tribes east and north-east of Lake Huron; 
and, lastly, the mission of St. Pierre included the 
tribes at the outlet of Lake Superior, and through- 
out a vast extent of surrounding wilderness.^ 

1 The mission of the Neutral Nation had been abandoned for the time, 
from the want of missionaries. The Jesuits had resolved on concentra- 
tion, and on the thorough conversion of the Hurons, as a preliniinary to 
more extended efforts. 

2 Besides tliese tribes, the Jesuits had become more or less acquainted 
with many otiiers, also Algonquin on the west and south of Lake Huron ; 
as well as with tlie Puans, or Winnebagoes, a Dacotah tribe between 
Lake Michigan and the Mississippi. 

The Mission of Sault Sainte Marie, at the outlet of Lake Superior, 



1C48.] A GATHERING OF THE PRIESTS. 369 

Tliese missions were more laborious, though not 
more perilous, than those among the Hurons. The 
Algonqum hordes were never long at rest ; and, 
summer and winter, the priest must follow them 
by lake, forest, and stream : in summer plying the 
paddle all day, or toiling through pathless thickets, 
bending under the weight of a birch canoe or a load 
of baggage, — at night, his bed the rugged earth, 
or some bare rock, lashed by the restless waves of 
Lake Huron ; while famine, the snow-storms, the 
cold, the treacherous ice of the Great Lakes, smoke, 
filth, and, not rarely, threats and persecution, were 
the lot of his winter wanderings. It seemed an 
earthly paradise, when, at long intervals, he found 
a respite from his toils among his brother Jesuits 
under the roof of Sainte Marie. 

Hither, while the Fathers are gathered from 
their scattered stations at one of their periodical 
meetings, — a little before the season of . Lent, 
1649,^ — let us, too, repau', and join them. We 
enter at the eastern gate of the fortification, mid- 
way in the wall between its northern and southern 
bastions, and pass to the hall, where, at a rude 
table, spread with ruder fare, all the household 
are assembled, — laborers, domestics, soldiers, and 
priests. 

was established at a later period. Modern writers have confounded it 
■with Sainte Marie of the Hurons. 

By tlie Relation of 1649 it appears that another mission had lately 
been begun at the Grand Manitoulin Island, which the Jesuits also chris- 
tened Isle Sainte Marie. 

1 The date of this meeting is a supposition merely. It is adopted 
with reference to events which preceded and followed. 



370 SAINTE MARIE. {LQiQ. 

It was a scene that might recall a remote half 
feudal, half patriarchal age, when, under the 
smoky rafters of his antique hall, some warlike 
thane sat, with kinsmen and dependants ranged 
down the long board, each in his degree. Here, 
doubtless, Ragueneau, the Father Superior, held 
the phice of honor ; and, for chieftains scarred witli 
Danish battle-axes, was seen a band of thoughtful 
men, clad in a threadbare garb of black, their brows 
swarthy from exposure, yet marked with the lines 
of intellect and a fixed enthusiasm of purpose. 
Here was Bressani, scarred with fii'ebrand and 
knife ; Chabanel, once a professor of rhetoric in 
France, now a missionary, bound by a self-imposed 
vow to a life from which his nature recoiled ; the 
fanatical Chaumonot, whose character savored of 
his peasant birth, — for the grossest fungus of su- 
perstition that ever grew under the shadow of 
Kome was not too much for his omnivorous credu- 
lity, and miracles and mysteries were his daily 
food ; yet, such as his faith was, he was ready to 
die for it. Garnier, beardless like a woman, was 
of a far finer nature. His religion was of the 
afi"ections and the sentiments ; and his imagination, 
warmed with the ardor of his faith, shaped the 
ideal forms of his worship into visible realities. 
Brebeuf sat conspicuous among his brethren, portly 
and tall, his short moustache and beard grizzled 
with tim.e, — for he was fifty-six years old. If he 
seemed impassive, it was because one overmaster- 
ing principle had merged and absorbed all the 
impulses of his nature and all the faculties of his 



I 



1649.] DANIEL. 371 

mind. The enthusiasm which with many is fitful 
and spasmodic was with him the current of his life, 
— solemn and deep as the tide of destiny. The 
Divine Trinity, the Virgin, the Saints, Heaven and 
Hell, Angels and Fiends, — to him, these alone 
were real, and all things else were nought. Gabriel 
Lalemant, nephew of Jerome Lalemant, Superior 
at Quebec, was Brebeuf 's colleague at the mission 
of St. Ignace. His slender frame and delicate 
features" gave him an appearance of youth, though 
he had reached middle life ; and, as in the case 
of Garnier, the fervor of his mind sustained him 
through exertions of which he seemed physi- 
cally incapable. Of the rest of that company 
little has come down to us but the bare record 
of their missionary toils ; and we may ask in vain 
what youthful enthusiasm, what broken hope or 
faded dream, turned the current of their lives, 
and sent them from the heart of civilization to 
this savage outpost of the world. 

No element was wanting in them for the achieve- 
ment of such a success as that to which they 
aspired, — neither a transcendent zeal, nor a match- 
less discipline, nor a practical sagacity very seldom 
surpassed in the pursuits where men strive for 
wealth and place ; and if they were destined to 
disappointment, it was the result of external causes, 
against which no power of theirs could have in- 
sured them. 

There was a gap in their number. The place 
of Antoine Daniel was empty, and never more to 
be filled by him, — never at least in the flesh* 



372 SAINTE MARIE. [1G49. 

for Cliaumonot averred, that not long since, when 
the Fathers were met in council, he had seen their 
dead companion seated in their midst, as of old, 
with a countenance radiant and majestic.^ They 
believed his story, — no doubt he believed it him- 
self; and they consoled one another with the 
thought, that, in losing theu' colleague on earth, 
they had gained him as a powerful intercessor in 
heaven. Daniel's station had been at St. Joseph; 
but the mission and the missionary had alike 
ceased to exist. 

1 " Ce bon Pere s'apparut apres sa mort k vn des nostres par deux 
diuerses fois. En I'vne il se fit voir en estat de gloire, portant le visage 
d'vn homme d'enuiron trente ans, quoy qu'il soit mort en I'age de qua- 
rante-huict. . . . Vne autre fois 11 fut veu assister a vne assemble'e que 
nous teiiions," etc. — Ragueneau, Relation des Huroiis, 1649, 5. 

"Le P. Chaumonot vit au milieu de Tassemblee le P. Daniel qui 
aidait les Peres de ses conseils, et les remplissait d'une force surnatureile ; 
son visage etait plein de majeste et d'eclat." — Ibid., Lettre au General 
de la Compagnie de Jesus (Carayon, 243). 

"Le P. Chaumonot nous a quelque fois raconte, k la gloire de cet 
illustre confesseur de J. C. (Daniel) qu'il s'e'toit fait voir a lui dans la 
gloire, ti I'age d'environ 30 ans, quoiqu'il en eut pres de 50, et avec les 
autres circonstances qui se trouuent Ici ( in the Historia Canadensis of Du 
Creux). II ajoutait seulement qu'a la vue de ce bien-heu'reux tant de 
choses lui vinrent a I'esprit pour les lui demander, qu'il ne savoit pas 
ou commencer son entretien avec ce cher defunt. Enfin, lui dit-il: 
" Apprenez moi, mon Pere, ce que ie dois faire pour etre bien agre'able 
k Dieu." — "Jamais," re'pondit le martyr, "ne perdez le souvenir de vo8 
pech^s." — Suite de la Vie de Chaumonot, 11, 



CHAPTEE XXVI. 

1648. 
ANTOINE DANIEL. 

HuKON Traders. — Battle at Three Rivers. — St. Joseph. — Ow- 
SET OF the Iroquois. — Death op Daniel. — The Town De- 
stroyed. 

In the summer of 1647 the Hurons dared not 
go down to the French settlements, but hi the fol- 
lowhig year they took heart, and resolved at all 
risks to make the attempt ; for the kettles, hatchets, 
and knives of the traders had become necessaries 
of life. Two hundred and fifty of their best war- 
riors therefore embarked, under five valiant chiefs. 
They made the voyage in safety, approached Three 
Bivers on the seventeenth of July, and, running 
their canoes ashore among the bulrushes, began to 
grease their hair, paint their faces, and otherwise 
adorn themselves, that they might appear after a 
befitting fashion at the fort. While they were thus 
engaged, the alarm was sounded. Some of their 
warriors had discovered a large body of Iroquois, 
who for several days had been lurking in the 
forest, unknown to the French garrison, watching 
their opportunity to strike a blow. The Hurons 

32 f 373 1 



374 ANTOINE DANIEL. [1648. 

snatched their arms, and, half-greased and painted, 
ran to meet them. The Iroquois received them 
with a volley. They fell flat to avoid the shot, 
then leaped up with a furious yell, and sent back 
a shower of arrows and bullets. The Iroquois, 
who were outnumbered, gave way and fled, except- 
ing a few who for a time made fight with their 
knives. The Hurons pursued. Many prisoners 
were taken, and many dead left on the field.^ The 
rout of the enemy was complete; and when their 
trade was ended, the Hurons returned home in 
triumph, decorated with the laurels and the scalps 
of victory. As it proved, it would have been well, 
had they remained there to defend their families 
and firesides. 

The oft-mentioned town of Teanaustaye, or St. 
Joseph, lay on the south-eastern frontier of the 
Huron country, near the foot of a range of forest- 
covered hills, and about fifteen miles from Sainte 
Marie. It had been the chief town of the nation, 
and its population, by the Indian standard, was still 
large ; for it had four hundred families, and at least 
two thousand inhabitants. It was well fortified 
with palisades, after the Huron manner, and was 
esteemed the chief bulwark of the country. Here 
countless Iroquois had been burned and devoured. 
Its people had been truculent and intractable hea- 
then, but many of them had surrendered to the 
Faith, and for four years past Father Daniel had 
preached among them with excellent results. 

1 Lalemant, Relation, 1648, 11. The Jesuit Bressani had come down 
with the Hurons, and was with them in the figlit. 



1648.] ALAEM. 375 

On the morning of the fourth of July, when the 
forest around basked lazily in the early sun, you 
might have mounted the rising ground on which 
the town stood, and passed unchallenged through 
the opening in the palisade. Within, you would 
have seen the crowded dwellings of bark, shaped 
like the arched coverings of huge baggage-wagons, 
and decorated Avith the totems or armorial de- 
vices of their owners daubed on the outside with 
paint. Here some squalid wolfish dog lay sleeping 
in the sun, a group of Huron girls chatted together 
in the shade, old squaws pounded corn in large 
wooden mortars, idle youths gambled with cherry- 
stones on a wooden platter, and naked infants 
crawled in the dust. Scarcely a warrior was to be 
seen. Some were absent in quest of game or of 
Iroquois scalps, and some had gone with the trad- 
ing-party to the French settlements. You followed 
the foul passage-ways among the houses, and at 
length came to the church. It was full to the door. 
Daniel had just finished the mass, and his flock 
still knelt at their devotions. It was but the day 
before that he had returned to them, warmed with 
new fervor, from his meditations in retreat at Sainte 
Marie. Suddenly an uproar of voices, shrill with 
terror, burst upon the languid silence of the town. 
" The Iroquois ! the Iroquois ! " A crowd of 
hostile warriors had issued from the forest, and 
were rushing across the clearing, towards the open- 
ing in the palisade. Daniel ran out of the church, 
and hurried to the point of danger. Some snatched 
weapons ; some rushed to and fro in the madness 



376 ANTOmE DANIEL. [1648. 

of a blind panic. The priest rallied the defenders ; 
promised Heaven to those who died for their homes 
and their faith ; then hastened from house to house, 
calling on unbelievers to repent and receive baptism, 
to snatch them from the Hell that yawned to ingulf 
them. They crowded around him, imploring to be 
saved ; and, immersing his handkerchief in a bowl 
of water, he shook it over them, and baptized them 
by aspersion. They pursued him, as he ran again 
to the church, where he found a throng of women, 
children, and old men, gathered as in a sanctuary. 
Some cried for baptism, some held out their childi-en 
to receive it, some begged for absolution, and some 
wailed in terror and despah. " Brothers," he ex- 
claimed again and again, as he shook the baptismal 
drops from his handkerchief, — " brothers, to-day 
we shall be in Heaven." 

The fierce yell of the war-whoop now rose close 
at hand. The palisade was forced, and the enemy 
was in the town. The air quivered with the infer- 
nal din. "Fly!" screamed the priest, driving his 
flock before him. " I will stay here. We shall 
meet again in Heaven." Many of them escaped 
through an opening in the palisade opposite to that 
by which the Iroquois had entered; but Daniel 
would not follow, for there still might be souls to 
rescue from perdition. The hour had come for 
which he had long prepared himself. In a moment 
he saw the Iroquois, and came forth from the 
chm'ch to meet them. When they saw him in 
turn, radiant in the vestments of his office, con- 
fronting them with a look kindled with the inspi- 



1648.] ST. JOSEPH DESTROYED. 377 

ration of martyrdom, they stopped and stared in 
amazement; then recovering themselves, bent their 
bows, and showered him with a volley of arrows, 
that tore through his robes and his flesh. A gun- 
shot followed ; the ball pierced his heart, and he 
fell dead, gasping the name of Jesus. They rushed 
upon him with yells of triumph, stripped him 
naked, gashed and hacked his lifeless body, and, 
scooping his blood in their hands, bathed their 
faces in it to make them brave. The town was in 
a blaze ; when the flames reached the church, they 
flung the priest into it, and both were consumed 
together.^ 

Teanaustaye was a heap of ashes, and the victors 
took up their march with a train of nearly seven 
hundred prisoners, many of whom they killed on 
the way. Many more had been slain in the town 
and the neighboring forest, where the pursuers 
hunted them down, and where women, crouching 
for refuge among thickets, were betrayed by the 
cries and wailing of their infants. 

The triumph of the Iroquois did not end here ; 
for a neighboring fortified town, included Avithin 
the circle of Daniel's mission, shared the fate of 
Teanaustaye. Never had the Huron nation re- 
ceived such a blow. 

1 Eagueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1649, 3-5; Bressani, Relation 
Atrerjee, 247; Du Creux, Historia. Canadensis, 524; Tanner, Societas Jesu 
Militans, 531 ; Marie de I'lncarnation, Lettre aux Ursulines de Tours, 
Quebec, 1649. 

Daniel was born at Dieppe, and was forty-eight years old at the time 
of liis death. He had been a Jesuit from the age of twenty. 

32* 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

1649. 
RUIN OF THE HURONS. 

Sr. Louis on Fire. — Invasion. — St. Ignace captured. — BRt- 
BEUF and Lalemant. — Battle AT St. Louis. — Sainte Marie 

THREATENED. RENEWED FlGHTING. DeSPERATE CONFLICT. — 

A Night of Suspense. — Panic among the Victors. — Burn 
TNG OF St. Ignace. — Retreat of the Iroquois. 

More than eight months had passed since the 
catastrophe of St. Joseph. The winter was over, 
and that dreariest of seasons had come, the churlish 
forerunner of spring, xlround Sainte Marie the 
forests were gray and bare, and, in the cornfields, 
the oozy, half-thawed soil, studded with the sodden 
stalks of the last autumn's harvest, showed itself 
in patches through the melting snow. 

At nine o'clock on the mornmg of the sixteenth 
of March, the priests saw a heavy smoke rising 
OA'er the naked forest towards the south-east, about 
three miles distant. They looked at each other in 
dismay. " The Iroquois ! They are burning St. 
Louis ! " Flames mingled with the smoke ; and, 
as they stood gazing, two Christian Hiu'ons came, 

[378] 



i649.J THE INVADERS. 379 

breathless and aghast, from the burmng town. 
Their worst fear was realized. The Iroquois were 
there ; but where were the priests of the mission, 
Brebeuf and Lalemant 1 

Late in the autumn, a thousand Iroquois, chiefly 
Senecas and Mohawks, had taken the war-path 
for the Hurons. They had been all winter in the 
forests, hunting for subsistence, and moving at 
their leisure towards thek prey. The destruction 
of the two towns of the mission of St. Joseph had 
left a wide gap, and in the middle of March they 
entered the heart of the Huron country, undis- 
covered. Common vigilance and common sense 
would have averted the calamities that followed ; 
but the Hurons were like a doomed people, stu- 
pefied, sunk in dejection, fearing everything, yet 
taking no measures for defence. They could easily 
have met the invaders with double theh force, but 
the besotted warriors lay idle in then' towns, or 
hunted at leisure in distant forests ; nor could the 
Jesuits, by counsel or exhortation, rouse them to 
face the danger. 

Before daylight of the sixteenth, the invaders 
approached St. Ignace, which, with St. Louis and 
three other towns, formed the mission of the same 
name. They reconnoitred the place in the dark- 
ness. It was defended on three sides by a deep 
ravine, and further strengthened by palisades fifteen 
or sixteen feet high, planted under the direction of 
the Jesuits. On the fourth side it was protected 
by palisades alone ; and these were left, as usual, 
unguarded. This was not from a sense of security; 



380 



EUIN OF THE HURONS. 



[1649. 



for the greater part of the population had aban- 
doned the town, thmkmg it too much exposed to 
the enemy, and there remained only about four 
hundred, chiefly women, children, and old men, 
whose infatuated defenders were absent hunting, 
or on futile scalping-parties against the Iroquois. 
It was just before dawn, when a yell, as of a legion 
of devils, startled the wretched inhabitants from 
their sleep; and the Iroquois, bursting in upon 
them, cut them down with knives and hatchets, 
killing many, and reserving the rest for a worse 
fate. They had entered by the weakest side ; on 
the other sides there was no exit, and only three 
Hurons escaped. The whole was the work of a 
few minutes. The Iroquois left a guard to hold 
the town, and secure the retreat of the main body 
in case of a reverse ; then, smearing their faces 
with blood, after their ghastly custom, they rushed, 
in the dim light of the early dawn, towards St. 
Louis, about a league distant. 

The three fugitives had fled, half naked, through 
the' forest, for the same point, which they reached 
about sunrise, yelling the alarm. The number of 
mhabitants here was less, at this time, than seven 
Hundred ; and, of these, all who had strength to es- 
cape, excepting about eighty warriors, made in wild 
terror for a place of safety. Many of the old, sick, 
and decrepit were left perforce in the lodges. The 
warriors, ignorant of the strength of the assailants, 
sang their war-songs, and resolved to hold the place 
to the last. It had not the natural strength of St. 
Ignace ; but, like it, was surrounded by palisades. 



1649.] BATTLE AT ST. LOUIS. 381 

Here were the two Jesuits, Brebeiif and Lale- 
mant. Brebeuf 's converts entreated him to escape 
with them ; but the Norman zealot, bold scion of 
a warlike stock, had no thought of flight. His 
post was in the teeth of danger, to cheer on those 
who fought, and open Heaven to those who fell. 
His colleague, slight of frame and frail of constitu- 
tion, trembled despite himself; but deep enthusiasm 
mastered the weakness of Nature, and he, too, re- 
fused to fly. 

Scarcely had the sun risen, and scarcely were the 
fugitives gone, when, Hke a troop of tigers, the Iro- 
quois rushed to the assault. Yell echoed yell, and 
shot answered shot. The Hurons, brought to bay, 
fought with the utmost desperation, and with ar- 
rows, stones, and the few guns they had, killed 
thirty of their assailants, and wounded many more. 
Twice the Iroquois recoiled, and twice renewed the 
attack with unabated ferocity. They swarmed at 
the foot of the palisades, and hacked at them with 
their hatchets, till they had cut them through at 
several difl"erent points. For a time there was a 
deadly fight at these breaches. Here were the two 
priests, promising Heaven to those who died for 
their faith, — one giving baptism, and the other 
absolution. At length the Iroquois broke in, and 
captured all the surviving defenders, the Jesuits 
among the rest. They set the town on fire ; and the 
helpless wretches who had remained, unable to 
fly, were consumed in then' burning dwellings. 
Next they fell upon Brebeuf and Lalemant, stripped 
them, bound them fast, and led them with the other 



382 RUIN OF THE HURONS. [1649. 

prisoners back to St. Tgnace, where all turned out 
to wreak their fury on the two priests, beating 
them savagely with sticks and clubs as they drove 
them into the town. At present, there was no time 
for further torture, for there was work in hand. 

The victors divided themselves into several bands, 
to burn the neighboring villages and hunt their 
flymg inhabitants. In the flush of theh triumph, 
they meditated a bolder enterprise ; and, in the 
afternoon, their chiefs sent small parties to recon- 
noitre Sainte Marie, with a view to attacking it on 
the next day. 

Meanwhile the fugitives of St. Louis, joined by 
other bands as terrified and as helpless as they, 
were struggling through the soft snow which 
clogged the forests towards Lake Huron, where 
the treacherous ice of spring was still unmelted. 
One fear expelled another. They ventured upon it, 
and pushed forward all that day and all the follow- 
ing night, shivering and famished, to find refuge 
in the towns of the Tobacco Nation. Here, when 
they arrived, they spread a universal panic. 

E-agueneau, Bressani, and their companions wait- 
ed in suspense at Sainte Marie. On the one hand, 
they trembled for Brebeuf and Lalemant ; on the 
other, they looked hourly for an attack : and when 
at evening they saw the Iroquois scouts prowling 
along the edge of the bordering forest, their fears 
were confirmed. They had with them about forty 
Frenchmen, well armed ; but their palisades and 
wooden buildings were not fire-proof, and they had 
learned from fugitives the number and ferocity of 



1 



1649.] RENEWED FIGHTING. 383 

the invaders. They stood guard all night, praying 
to the Saints, and above all to their great patron, 
Saint Joseph, whose festival was close at hand. 

In the morning they were somewhat relieved by 
the arrival of about three hundred Huron warriors, 
chiefly converts from La Conception and- Sainte 
Madeleine, tolerably well armed, and full of fight. 
They were expecting others to join them ; and 
meanwhile, dividing into several bands, they took 
post by the passes of the neighboring forest, 
hoping to waylay parties of the enemy. Their 
expectation was fulfilled ; for, at this time, two 
hundred of the Iroquois were making theu* way 
from St. Ignace, in advance of the main body, to 
begin the attack on Sainte Marie. They fell in 
with a band of the Hurons, set upon them, killed 
many, drove the rest to headlong flight, and, as 
they plunged in terror through the snow, chased 
them within sight of Sainte Marie. The other 
Hiu'ons, hearing the yells and firing, ran to the 
rescue, and attacked so fiercely, that the Iroquois 
in turn were routed, and ran for shelter to St. 
Louis, followed closely by the victors. The houses 
of the town had been burned, but the palisade 
around them was still standing, though breached 
and broken. The Iroquois rushed in ; but the 
Hurons were at theh heels. Many of the fugitives 
were captured, the rest killed or put to utter rout, 
and the triumphant Hurons remained masters of 
the place. 

The Iroquois who escaped fled -to St. Ignace. 
Here, or on the way thither, they found the main 



384 RUIN OF THE HUTIONS. [1649 

body of the invaders ; and when they heard of 
the disaster, the whole swarm, beside themselves 
with rage, turned towards St. Louis to take their 
revenge. Now ensued one of the most furious 
Indian battles on record. The Hurons "within the 
palisade did not much exceed a hundi-ed and fifty ; 
for many had been killed or disabled, and many, 
perhaps, had straggled away. Most of then* ene- 
mies had guns, while they had but few. Theu' 
weapons were bows and arrows, war-clubs, hatch- 
ets, and knives ; and of these they made good use, 
sallying repeatedly, fighting like devils, and driving 
back their assailants again and again. There are 
times when the Indian warrior forgets his cautious 
maxims, and throws himself into battle with a 
mad and reckless ferocity. The desperation of 
one party, and the fierce courage of both, kept up 
the fight after the day had closed ; and the scout 
from Sainte Marie, as he bent listening under the 
gloom of the pines, heard, far into the night, the 
howl of battle rising from the darkened forest. 
The principal chief of the Iroquois was severely 
wounded, and nearly a hundred of their warriors 
were killed on the spot. When, at length, their 
numbers and persistent fury prevailed, their only 
prize was some twenty Huron warriors, spent with 
fatigue and faint with loss of blood. The rest lay 
dead around the shattered palisades which they 
had so valiantly defended. Fatuity, not cowardice, 
was the ruin of tbe Huron nation. 

The lamps burned all night at Sainte Marie, and 
its defenders stood watching till daylight, musket 



1G49.] IROQUOIS FEROCITY. 385 

in liand. The Jesuits prayed without ceasing, 
and Saint Joseph was besieged with invocations. 
" Those of us w^ho were priests," writes E,ague- 
neau, "each made a vow to say a- mass in his 
honor every month, for the space of a year; and all 
the rest bound themselves by vows to divers pen- 
ances." The expected onslaught did not take place. 
Not an Iroquois appeared. Their victory had been 
bought too dear, and they had no stomach for 
more fighting. All the next day, the eighteenth, 
a. stillness, like the dead lull of a tempest, followed 
the turmoil of yesterday, — as if, says the Father 
Superior, " the country were waiting, palsied with 
fright, for some new disaster." 

On the following day, — the journalist fails not 
to mention that it was the festival of Saint Joseph, 
— Indians came in with tidings that a panic had 
seized the Iroquois camp, that the chiefs could not 
control it, and that the whole body of inVaders was 
retreating in disorder, possessed with a vague 
terror that the Hurons were upon them in force. 
They had found time, however, for an act of atro- 
cious cruelty. They planted stakes in the bark 
houses of St. Ignace, and bound to them those 
of their prisoners whom they meant to sacrifice, 
male and female, from old age to infancy, hus- 
bands, mothers, and children, side by side. Then, 
as they retreated, they set the town on fire, and 
laughed with savage glee at the shrieks of anguish 
that rose from the blazing dwellings.^ 

1 The site of St. Ignace still bears evidence of the catastrophe, in the 
ashes and charcoal that indicate the position of the houses, and the frag- 

33 



386 EUIN OF THE HURONS. [1649. 

They loaded the rest of their prisoners with 
their baggage and plunder, and drove them 
through the forest southward, braining with their 
hatchets any who gave out on the march. An 
old woman, who had escaped out of the midst 
of the flames of St. Ignace, made her way to 
St. Michel, a large town not far from the desolate 
site of St. Joseph. Here she found about seven 
hundred Huron warriors, hastily mustered. She 
set them on the track of the retreating Iroquois, 
and they took up the chase, — but evidently with no 
great eagerness to overtake their dangerous enem)% 
well armed as he was with Dutch guns, while they 
had little beside their bows and arrows. They 
found, as they advanced, the dead bodies of prison- 
ers tomahawked on the march, and others bound 
fast to trees and half burned by the fagots piled 
hastily around them. The Iroquois pushed for- 
ward with such headlong speed, that the pursuers 
could not, or Avould not, overtake them ; and, after 
two days, they gave over the attempt. 

merits of broken pottery and half-consumed bone, together with trinkets 
of stone, metal, or glass, which have survived the lapse of two centuries 
and more. The place has been minutely examined bj Dr. Tache. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

1649. 

THE MARTYRS. 

The EuiNS of St. Ignace. — The Relics found. — Bkebedp XT 
THE Stake. — His unconquerable Fortitude. — Lalemant. — 
Renegade Hurons. — Iroquois Atrocities. — Death of Bke- 
BEUF. — His Character. — Death of Lalemant. 

On the morning of the twentieth, the Jesuits 
at Sainte Marie received full confu'mation of the 
reported retreat of the invaders ; and one of them, 
with seven armed Frenchmen, set out for the scene 
of havoc. They passed St. Louis, where the bloody 
ground was strown thick with corpses, and, two 
or three miles farther on, reached St. Ignace. 
Here they saw a spectacle of horror; for among 
the ashes of the burnt town were scattered in pro- 
fusion the half-consumed bodies of those who had 
perished in the flames. Apart from the rest, they 
saw a sight that banished all else from their 
thoughts ; for they found what they had come to 
seek, — the scorched and mangled relics of Bre- 
beuf and Lalemant.^ 

1 "lis y trouuerent vn spectacle d'horreur, les restes de la cruautd 
mesme, ou plus tost les restes de I'amour de Dieu, qui seul triomplie dans 
la mort des Martyrs." — Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1649, 13. 

[387} 



388 THE MARTYRS. [1049. 

They had learned then* fate ah'eady from Hui'on 
prisoners,, many of whom had made then- escape 
in the panic and confusion of the Iroquois retreat. 
They described what they had seen, and the con- 
dition in which the bodies were found confirmed 
their story. 

On the afternoon of the sixteenth, — the day 
when the two priests were captured, — Brebeuf 
was led apart, and bound to a stake. He seemed 
more concerned for his captive converts than for 
himself, and addressed them in a loud voice, ex- 
horting them to suffer patiently, and promising 
Heaven as their reward. The Iroquois, incensed, 
scorched him from head to foot, to silence him ; 
whereupon, in the tone of a master, he threatened 
them with everlasting flames, for persecuting the 
worshippers of God. As he continued to speak, 
with voice and countenance unchanged, they cut 
away his lower lip and thrust a red-hot iron down 
his throat. He still held his tall form erect and 
defiant^ "with no sign or sound of pain; and they 
tried another means to overcome him. They led 
out Lalemant, that Brebeuf might see him tortiu'ed. 
They had tied strips of bark, smeared with pitch, 
about his naked body. When he saw the condi- 
tion of his Superior, he could not hide his agitation, 
and called out to him, with a broken voice, in the 
words of Saint Paul, "We are made a spectacle to 
the world, to angels, and to men." Then he threw 
himself at Brebeuf 's feet ; upon which the L'oquois 
seized him, made him fast to a stake, and set fire to 
the bark that enveloped him. As the flame rose, 



1649!] CHARACTER OF BR^BEUF. 389 

he threw his arms upward, with a shriek of suppli- 
cation to Heaven. Next they hung around Bre- 
beuf's neck a collar made of hatchets heated red 
hot ; but the indomitable priest stood like a rock. 
A Huron in the crowd, who had been a convert of 
the mission, but was now an Iroquois by adoption, 
called out, with the malice of a renegade, to pour 
hot water on their heads, since they had poured so 
much cold water on those of others. The kettle 
was accoi'dingly slung, and the water boiled and 
poured slowly on the heads of the two mission 
aries. " We baptize you," they cried, " that you 
may be happy in Heaven; for nobody can be saved 
without a good baptism." Brebeuf would not flinch ; 
and, in a rage, they cut strips of flesh from his 
limbs, and devoured them before his eyes. Other 
renegade Hurons called out to him, " You told us, 
that, the more one sufl"ers on earth, the happier he 
is in Heaven. We wish to make you happy; 
we torment you because we love you; and you 
ought to thank us for it." After a succession of 
other revolting tortures, they scalped him; when, 
seeing him nearly dead, they laid open his breast,, 
and came m a crowd to drink the blood of so 
valiant an enemy, thinkuig to imbibe with it some 
portion of his courage. A chief then tore out his 
heart, and devoured it. 

Thus died Jean de Brebeuf, the founder of the 
Huron mission, its truest hero, and its greatest mar- 
tyr. He came of a noble race, — the same, it is 
said, from which sprang the English Earls of Arun- 
del ; but never had the mailed barons of his line 

83* 



390 THE JVIARTYES. [1649. 

confronted a fate so appalling, with so prodigious a 
constancy. ' To the last he refused to flinch, and 
" his death was the astonishment of his murderers."^ 
In him an enthusiastic devotion was grafted on an 
heroic nature. His bodily endowments were as 
remarkable as the temper of his mind. His manly 
proportions, his strength, and his endurance, which 
incessant fasts and penances could not undermine, 
had always won for hun the respect of the Indians, 
no less thiin a courage unconscious of fear, and yet 
redeemed from rashness by a cool and vigorous judg- 
ment ; for, extravagant as w^ere the chimeras which 
fed the fii-es of his zeal, they were consistent with the 
soberest good sense on matters of practical bearmg. 
Lalemant, physically weak from childhood, and 
slender almost to emaciation, was constitutionally 
unequal to a display of fortitude like that of his 
colleague. When Brebeuf died, he was led back 
to the house whence he had been taken, and tor- 
tured there all night, mitil, in the morning, one 
of the Iroquois, growing tu'ed of the protracted 
entertainment, killed him with a hatchet.^ It was 
said, that, at times, he seemed beside himself; 
then, rallying, with hands uplifted, he offered his 



1 Charlevoix, I. 294. Alegambe uses a similar expression. 

'■^ " A\e saw no part of his body," says Ragueneau, " from head to 
foot, which was not burned, even to his eyes, in the sockets of which 
those wretches had placed live coals." — Relation des Hurons, 1G49, 15. 

Lalemant was a Parisian, and his family belonged to the class of (/ens 
de robe, or hereditary practitioners of the law. He was thirty-nine years 
of age. His physical weakness is spoken of by several of those who knew 
him. Marie de I'lncarnation says, " C'e'tait I'homme le plus faible ei le plus 
delicat qu'on eut pu voir." Both Bressaiii and Eagueneau are equally 
emphatic on this point. 



1649.] RELIC OF BRJSBEUF. 391 

sufferings to Heaven as a sacrifice. His robust com- 
panion had lived less than four hours under the 
torture, while he survived it for nearly seventeen. 
Perhaps the Titanic effort of will with which Bre- 
beuf repressed all show of suffering conspked with 
the Iroquois knives and firebrands to exhaust his 
vitality ; perhaps his tormentors, enraged at his for- 
titude, forgot their subtlety, and struck too near the 
life. 

The bodies of the two missionaries were carried 
to Sainte Marie, and buried in the cemetery there ; 
but the skull of Brebeuf was preserved as a relic. 
His family sent from France a silver bust of their 
martyred kinsman, in the base of which was a re- 
cess to contain the skull ; and, to this day, the bust 
and the relic within are preserved with pious care 
by the nuns of the Hotel-Dieu at Quebec.^ 

1 Photographs of the bust are before me. Various relics of the two 
missionaries were preserved ; and some of them may still be seen in 
Canadian monastic establishments. The following extract from a letter 
of Marie de I'lncarnation to her son, written from Quebec in October of 
this year, 1649, is curious. 

" Madame our foundress [Madame de la Pellrie) sends you relics of 
our holy martyrs ; but she does it secretly, since the reverend Fathers 
would not give us any, for fear that we should send them to France : but, 
as she is not bound by vows, and as the very persons who went for the 
bodies have given relics of them to her in secret, I begged her to send 
you some of them, which she has done very gladly, from the respect she 
has for you." She adds, in the same letter, " Our Lord having revealed 
to him {Bre'beuf) the time of his martyrdom three days before it happened, 
he went, full of joy, to find the other Fathers ; who, seeing him in extraor- 
dinary spirits, caused him, by an inspiration of God, to be bled; after 
which the surgeon dried his blood, through a pi-esentiment of what was 
to take place, lest he should be treated like Father Daniel, who, eight 
montlis before, had been so reduced to ashes that no remains of his body 
could be found." 

Brebeuf had once been ordered by the Father Superior to write down 
the visions, revelations, and inward experiences with which he was 



392 THE MARTYRS. [164&. 



favored, — "at least," says Ragueneau, "those which he could easily re- 
member, for their multitude was too great for the whole to be recalled." 
— "I find nothing," he adds, " more frequent in this memoir than the 
expression of his desire to die for Jesus Christ: ' Sentio me vehementer 
impelli ad moriendum pro Christo.' ... In fine, wishing to make himself 
a holocaust and a victim consecrated to death, and holily to anticipate 
the happiness of martyrdom which awaited him, he bound himself by a 
vow to Christ, which he conceived in these terms " ; and Raguejieau 
gives the vow in the original Latin. It binds him never to refuse " the 
grace of martyrdom, if, at any day, Thou shouldst, in Thy infinite pity, 
oflfer it to me. Thy unworthy servant;". . . "and when I shall have 
received the stroke of death, I bind myself to accept it at Thy hand, with 
all the contentment and joy of my heart." 

Some of his innumerable visions have been already mentioned. (See 
ante, p. 108.) Tanner, Societas Militans, gives various others, — as, for ex- 
ample, that he once beheld a mountain covered thick \yith saints, but above 
all with virgins, while the Queen of Virgins sat at the top in a blaze of 
glory. In 1637, when the whole country was enraged against the Jes- 
uits, and above all against Brcbeuf, as sorcerers who had caused the 
pest, Ragueneau tells us that " a troop of demons appeared before him 
divers times, — sometimes like men in a fury, sometimes like frightful 
monsters, bears, lions, or wild horses, trying to rush upon him. These 
spectres excited in him neither horror nor fear. He said to them, ' Do to 
me whatever God permits you; for without His will not one hair will fall 
from my head.' And at these words all the demons vanished in a 
moment." — Relation des Hurons, 1649, 20. Compare the long notice in 
Alegambe, Mortes Illuslres, 644. 

In Ragueneau's notice of Brcbeuf, as in all other notices of deceased 
missionaries in the Relations, the saintly qualities alone are brought for- 
ward, as obedience, humility, etc. ; but wherever Brcbeuf himself appears 
in the course of those voluminous records, he always brings with him 
in impression of power. 

We are told that, punning on his own name, he used to say that he 
was an ox, fit only to bear burdens. This sort of humility may pass for 
what it is worth ; but it must be remembered, that there is a kind of act- 
ing in which the actor firmly believes in the part he is playing. As for 
the obedience, it was as genuine as that of a well-disciplined soldier, and 
incomparably more profound. In the case of the Canadian Jesuits, 
posterity owes to this, their favorite virtue, the record of numerous 
visions, inward voices, and the like miracles, which the object of these 
favors set down on paper, at the command of his Superior ; wliile, other- 
wise, humility would have concealed them forever. The truth is, that, 
with some of these missionaries, one may throw oflT trash and nonsense 
by the cart-load, and find under it all a solid nucleus of saint and hero. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

1649, 1650. 
THE SANCTUARY. 

Dispersion of the Hurons. — Sainte Marie abandoned. — Isle 
St. Joseph. — Removal of the Mission. — The New Fort. — 
Misery of the Hurons. — Famine. — Epidemic. — Employ- 
ments OF THE Jesuits. 

All was over with the Hurons. The death-knell 
of their nation had struck. Without a leader, 
without organization, without union, crazed with 
fright and paralyzed with misery, they yielded to 
thek doom without a blow. Their only thought 
was flight. Within two weeks after the disasters 
of St. Ignace and St. Louis, fifteen Huron towns 
were abandoned, and the greater number burned, 
lest they should give shelter to the Iroquois. The 
last year's harvest had been scanty ; the fugitives 
had no food, and they left behind them the fields 
in which was their only hope of obtaining it. In 
bands, large or small, some roamed northward 
and eastward, through the half-thawed wilderness ; 
some hid themselves on the rocks or islands of Lake 
Huron ; some sought an asylum among the Tobacco 

[393] 



394 THE SANCTUAEY. [1649. 

Nation ; a few joined the Neutrals on the north of 
Lake Erie. The Hurons, as a nation, ceased to 
exist.^ 

Hitherto Sainte Marie had been covered by 
large fortified towns which lay between it and the 
Iroquois ; but these were all destroyed, some by 
the enemy and some by their own people, and the 
Jesuits were left alone to bear the brunt of the 
next attack. There was, moreoA'^er, no reason for 
their remaining. Sainte Marie had been built as 
a basis for the missions ; but its occupation was 
gone: the flock had fltd from the shepherds, and 
its existence had no longer an object. If the 
priests stayed to be butchered, they would perish, 
not as martyrs, but as fools. The necessity was as 
clear as it was bitter. All their toil must come to 
nought. Sainte Marie must be abandoned. They 
confess the pang which the resolution cost them ; 
but, pursues the Father Superior, " since the birth 
of Christianity, the Faith has nowhere been plant- 
ed except in the midst of sufferings and crosses. 
Thus this desolation consoles us ; and in the midst 
of persecution, in the extremity of the evils which 
assail us and the greater evils which threaten us, 
we are all filled with joy : for our hearts tell us 
that God has never had a more tender love for us 
than now." ^ 

1 Chaumonot, who was at Ossossane at the time of the Ii'oquoia 
invasion, gives a vivid picture of the panic and lamentation which 
followed the news of the destruction of the Huron warriors at St. Louis, 
and of the flight of the inhabitants to the country of the Tobacco 
Nation. — Vie, 62. 

'^ Ragueneau, Relation des Hw^s, 1649, 26. 



1649.] DECISION OF THE PRIESTS. 395 

Several of the priests set out to follow and 
console the scattered bands of fugitive Hurons. 
One embarked in a canoe, and coasted the dreary 
shores of Lake Huron northward, among the wild 
labyrinth of rocks and islets, whither his scared 
flock had fled for refuge ; another betook himself to 
the forest with a band of half-famished proselytes, 
and shared their miserable rovings through the 
thickets and among the mountains. Those who 
remained took counsel together at Sainte Marie. 
"Whither should they go, and where should be the 
new seat of the mission? They made choice of the 
Grand Manitoulin Island, called by them Isle Sainte 
Marie, and by the Hurons Ekaentoton. It lay near 
the northern shores of Lake Huron, and by its posi- 
tion would give a ready access to numberless Algon- 
quin tribes along the borders of all these inland 
seas. Moreover, it would bring the priests and 
their flock nearer to the French settlements, by the 
route of the Ottawa, whenever the Iroquois should 
cease to infest that river. The fishing, too, was 
good; and some of the priests, who knew the is- 
land well, made a favorable report of the soil. 
Thither, therefore, they had resolved to transplant 
the mission, when twelve Huron chiefs arrived, and 
asked for an interview with the Father Superior 
and his fellow Jesuits. The conference lasted three 
hours. The deputies declared that many of the 
scattered Hurons had determined to reunite, and 
form a settlement on a neighboring island of the 
lake, called by the Jesuits Isle St. Joseph ; that 
they needed the aid of the Fathers ; that without 



396 THE SANCTUARY. [1649. 

them they were helpless, but with them they could 
hold their grouud and repel the attacks of the Iro- 
quois. They urged their plea in language which 
Ragueneau describes as pathetic and eloquent ; and, 
to confirm their words, they gave him ten large 
collars of wampum, saying that these were the 
voices of their wives and children. They gained 
their pomt. The Jesuits abandoned their former 
plan, and promised to join the Hurons on Isle 
St. Joseph. 

They had built a boat, or small vessel, and in 
this they embarked such of their stores as it would 
hold. The greater part were placed on a large 
raft made for the purpose, like one of the rafts 
of timber which every summer float down the St. 
Lawrence and the Ottawa. Here was their stock 
of corn, — in part the produce of theu- own fields, 
and in part bought from the Hurons in former years 
of plenty, — pictures, vestments, sacred vessels and 
images, weapons, ammunition, tools, goods for 
barter with the Indiana, cattle, swine, and poultry.-^ 
Sainte Marie was stripped of everything that could 
be moved. Then, lest it should harbor the Iro- 
quois, they set it on fii-e, and saw consumed in an 
hoiu' the results of nine or ten years of toil. It 
was near sunset, on the fourteenth of June.^ The 

1 Some of these were killed for food after reaching the island. In 
March following, they had ten fowls, a pair of swine, two bulls and two 
cows, kept for breeding. — Lettre de Ragueneau au General de la Compagnie 
de Jesus, St. Joseph, 13 Mais, 1650. 

2 Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1650, 3. In the Relation of the 
preceding year he gives the fifteenth of May as the date, — evidently an 
error. 

"Nous sortismes de ces terres de Promission qui estoient nosti'e 



1649.] ISLE ST. JOSEPH. 397 

houseless band descended to the mouth of the 
Wye, went on board their raft, pushed it from 
the shore, and, with sweeps and oars, urged it on 
its way all night. The lake was calm and the 
weather fair ; but it crept so slowly ovct the water 
that several days elapsed before they reached their 
destination, about twenty miles distant. 

Near the entrance of Matchedash Bay lie the 
three islands now known as Faith, Hope, and 
Charity. Of these, Charity or Christian Island, 
called Ahoendoe by the Hurons and St. Joseph 
by the Jesuits, is by far the largest. It is six or 
eight miles wide ; and when the Hurons sought 
refuge here, it was densely covered with the prime- 
val forest. The priests landed with their men, 
some forty soldiers, laborers, and others, and found 
about three hundred Huron families bivouacked 
in the woods. Here were wigwams and sheds 
of bark, and smoky kettles slung over fires, each 

Paradis, et ou la mort nous eust este mille fois plus douce que ne sera la 
vie en quelque lieu que nous puissions estre. Mais il faut suiure Dieu, 
et il faut aimer ses conduites, quelque oppose'es qu'elles paroissent a nos 
desirs, a nos plus saintes esperances et aux plus tendres amours de nostre 
coeur. — Lettre de Ragueneau au P. Provincial a Paris, in Relation des 
Hurons, 1650, 1. 

" Mais il fallut, a tous tant que nous estions, quitter cette ancienne 
demeure de saincte Marie ; ces edifices, qui quoy que pauures, pavois- 
soieilt des chefs-d'oeuure de I'art aux yeux de nos pauures Sauuages ; ces 
terres cultiuees, qui nous promettoient vne riche moisson. II nous fallut 
abandonner ce lieu, que ie puis appeller nostre seconde Patrie et nos 
delices innocentes, puis qu'il auoit este' le berceau de ce Christianisme, 
qu'il estoit le temple de Dieu et la maison des seruiteurs de lesus-Christ; 
et crainte que nos ennemis trop impies, ne profanassent ce lieu de 
sainctete' et n'en prissent leur auantage, nous y mismes le feu nous 
mesmes, et nous vismes brusler a nos yeux, en moins d'vne lieure, nos 
trauaux de neuf et de dix ans." — Eagueneau, Relation des Hurons^ 
1650, 2, 3. 

34 



398 THE SANCTUARY. [1649. 

on its tripod of poles, while around lay groups 
of famished wretches, with dark, haggard visages 
and uncombed hair, in every posture of despond- 
ency and woe. They had not been wholly idle ; 
for they had made some rough clearings, and 
planted a little corn. The arrival of the Jesuits 
gave them new hope ; and, weakened as they 
were with famine, they set themselves to the task 
of hewing and burning down the forest, making 
bark houses, and planting palisades. The priests, 
on their part, chose a favorable spot, and began 
to clear the ground and mark out the lines of a fort. 
Their men — the greater part serving without pay 
— labored with admirable spirit, and before win- 
ter had built a square, bastioned fort of solid 
masonry, with a deep ditch, and walls about twelve 
feet high. Within were a small chapel, houses for 
lodging, and a well, which, with the ruins of the 
walls, may still be seen on the south-eastern shore 
of the island, a hundred feet from the water.^ 
Detached redoubts were also built near at hand, 
where French musketeers could aid in defending 
the adjacent Hiu'on village.^ Though the island 
was called St. Joseph, the fort, like that on the 
Wye, received the name of Sainte Marie. Jesuit 

1 The measurement between the angles of the two southern bastions 
is 123 feet, and that of the curtain wall connecting these bastions is 78 
feet. Some curious relics have been found in the fort, — among others, 
a steel mill for making wafers for the Host. It was found in 1848, in a 
remarkable state of preservation, and is now in an English museum, 
having been bought on the spot by an amateur. As at Sainte Marie on 
the Wye, the remains are in perfect conformity with the narratives and 
letters of the priests. 

2 Compare Martin, Introduction to Bressani, Relation Abr€g€e, 38. 



1649.] THE REFUGEES. 399 

devotion scattered these names broadcast over all 
the field of their labors. 

The island, thanks to the vigilance of the 
French, escaped attack throughout the summer ; 
but Iroquois scalping-parties ranged the neigh- 
boring shores, killing stragglers and keeping the 
Hurons in perpetual alarm. As winter drew near, 
great numbers, who, trembling and by stealth, 
had gathered a miserable subsistence among the 
northern, forests and islands, rejoined their coun- 
trpnen at St. Joseph, until six or eight thousand 
expatriated wretches were gathered here under the 
protection of the French fort. They were housed 
in a hundred or more bark dwellings, each con- 
taining eight or ten families.^ Here were widows 
without children, and children without parents ; 
for. famine and the Iroquois had proved more 
deadly enemies than the pestilence which a few 
years before had wasted their towns. ^ Of this 

1 Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1650, 3, 4. He reckons eight per- 
sons to a family. 

2 " le voudrois pouuoir representer a toutes les personnes affectionnces 
k nos Hurons, I'etat pitoyable auquel ils sont reduits; . . . comment 
seroit-il possible que ces iniitateurs de lesus Christ ne fussent emeus a 
pitie a la veuc des centaines et centaines de veuues dont non seulemcnt 
les enfans, mais quasi les parens ont este outrageusement ou tuez, ou 
emmenez captifs, et puis inhumainement bruslez, cuits, dechirez et deu- 
orez des ennemis." — Lettre de Chauvionot a Lalemant, Supe'rieur a QuC.-ec, 
Isle de St. Joseph, 1 Juin, 1649. 

" Vne mere s'est veue, n'ayant que ses deux mamelles, mais sans sue 
et sans laict, qui toutefois estoit I'vnique chose qu'elle eust peu presenter 
a trois ou quatre enfans qui pleuroient y estans attachez. Elle les voyoit 
raourir entre ses bras, les vns apres les autres, et n'auoit pas mesme les 
forces de les pousser dans le tombeau. Elle mouroit sous cette charge, 
et en mourant elle di^ot : Ouy, Mon Dieu, vous estes le maistre de nos 
Ties ; nous mourrons puisque vous le voulez ; voila qui est bien que nous 
mourrions Chrestiens. I'estois damnce, et mes enfans auec -tioy, si 



400 THE SANCTUARY. [1649-50. 

multitude but few had strength, enough to labor, 
scarcely any had made provision for the winter, 
and numbers were already perishing from want, 
drao-oiiiCT themselves from house to house, like liv- 
ing skeletons. The priests had spared no effort 
to meet the demands upon their charity. They 
sent men during the autumn to buy smoked fish 
from the Northern Algonquins, and employed In- 
dians to gather acorns in the woods. Of this 
miserable food they succeeded in collecting five 
or six hundred bushels. To diminish its bitter- 
ness, the Indians boiled it with ashes, or the priests 
served it out to them pounded, and mixed with 
corn.^ 

x\s winter advanced, the Huron houses became 
a frightful spectacle. Their inmates were dying by 
scores daily. The priests and their men buried. the 
bodies, and the Indians dug them from the earth 
or the snow and fed on them, sometimes in secret 
and sometimes openly ; although, notwithstanding 
thek superstitious feasts on the bodies of their en- 
emies, their repugnance and horror were extreme 
at the thought of devouring those of relatives and 
friends.^ An epidemic presently appeared, to aid 

nous ne fussions morts miserables ; ils ont receu le sainct Baptesme, et 
ie croy fermenient que mourans tous de compagnie, nous ressusciterons 
tous ensemble." — Kagueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1650, 5. 

1 Eight hundred sacks of this mixture were given to the Hurons 
during the winter. — Bressani, Relation Abregee, 283. 

2 " Ce fut alors que nous fusmes contraints de voir des squeletes 
mourantes, qui soustenoient vne vie miserable, mangeant iusqu'aux ordures 
et les rebuts de la nature. Le gland estoit a la pluspart, ce que seroient 
en France les mets les plus exquis. Les charognes mesme deterrces, les 
restes des Renards et des Chiens ne faisoieut point horri^ur, et se mange- 
oient, quoy qu'en cache te : car quoy que les Hurons, auant que la foy 



1649-50.] OCCUPATIONS OF THE PRIESTS. 401 

tlie work of famine. Before spring, about lialf of 
their number were dead. 

Meanwhile, though the cold was intense and the 
snow several feet deep, yet not an hour was free 
from the danger of the Iroquois ; and, from sunset 
to daybreak, under the cold moon or in the diiving 
snow-storm, the French sentries walked their rounds 
along the ramparts. 

The priests rose before dawn, and spent the time 
till sunrise in their private devotions. Then the 
bell of their chapel rang, and the Indians came in 
crowds at the call ; for misery had softened their 
hearts, and nearly all on the island were now Chris- 
tian. There was a mass, followed by a prayer 
and a few words of exhortation ; then the hearers 
dispersed to make room for others. Thus the 
little chapel was filled ten or twelve times, until all 
had had their turn. Meanw^hile other priests were 
hearing confessions and giving advice and encour- 
agement in private, according to the needs of each 
applicant. This lasted till nine o'clock, when all 
the Indians returned to their village, and the priests 
presently followed, to give what assistance they 
could. Their cassocks were worn out, and they 



leur eust donne plus de lumiere qu'ils n'en auoient dans I'infidelite, ne 
creussent pas commettre aucun peche de manger leurs ennemis, aussi peu 
qu'il y en a de les tuer, toutefois ie puis dire auec verite, qu'ils n'ont pas 
moins d'horreur de manger de leurs compatriotes, qu'on pent auoir en 
France de manger de la chair humaine. Mais la necessite n'a plus de 
loy, et des dents fameliques ne discernent plus ce qu'elles mangent. Les 
meres se sont repeues de leurs enfans, des freres de leurs freres, et des 
enfans ne reeonnoissoient plus en vn cadaure mort, celuy lequel lors qu'il 
viuoit, ils appelloient leur Pere." — Ragueneau Relation des Hurons, 
1650, 4. Compare Bressanij Relation Ahrege'e, 283. 

34* 



402 THE SANCTUARY. [164&-50. 

were dressed chiefly in skins. ^ They visited the 
Indian houses, and gave to those whose necessi- 
ties were most urgent small scraps of hide, sever- 
ally stamped with a particular mark, and entitling 
the recipients, on presenting them at the fort, to a 
few acorns, a small quantity of boiled maize, or a 
fragment of smoked fish, according to the stamp on 
the leather ticket of each. Two hours before sun- 
set the bell of the chapel again rang, and the relig- 
ious exercises of the morning were repeated.^ 

Thus this miserable winter wore away, till the 
opening spring brought new fears and new ne- 
cessities.^ 

1 Letlre de Raffueneau au Gtfn&al de la Compagnie de Jesus, Isle St. 
Joseph, 13 Mars, 1650. 

2 Ragueneau, Relation des Ilurons, 1650, 6, 7. 

3 Concerning the retreat of the Hiirons to Isle St. Joseph, the principal 
authorities are the Relations of 1649 and 1650, which are ample in detail, 
and written with an excellent simplicity and modesty ; the Relation 
Abre'fjc'e of Bressani ; the reports of the Father Superior to the General 
of the Jesuits at Rome ; the manuscript of 1652, entitled Me'moires touchant 
la Mori et les Veiius des Peres, etc.; the unpublished letters of Carrier; 
and a letter of Chaumonot, written on the spot, and preserved in the 
Relations. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

1649. 
GAUNIER. CHABANEL. 

The Tobacco Missions. — St. Jean attacked. — Death op Gab- 
NiER. — The Journey of Chabanel. — His Death. — Garreai; 
AND Gkelon. 

Late in the preceding autumn the Iroquois had 
taken the war-path in force. At the end of No- 
vember, two escaped prisoners came to Isle St. 
Joseph with the news that a band of three hundred 
warriors was hovering in the Huron forests, doubt- 
ful whether to invade the island or to attack the 
towns of the Tobacco Nation in the valleys of the 
Blue Mountains. The Father Superior, Rague- 
neau, sent a runner thither in all haste, to warn 
the inhabitants of their danger. 

There were at this time two missions in the 
Tobacco Nation, St. Jean and St. Matthias,^ — 
the latter under the charge df the Jesuits Garreau 
and Grelon, and the former under that of Garnier 
and Chabanel. St. Jean, the principal seat of the 

1 The Indian name of St. Jean was Etarita; and that of St. Matthias^ 
Ekarenniondi. 

[403] 



404 GARNIER. [1649. 

mission of the same name, was a to"\vn of five or 
six hundred families. Its population was, more- 
over, greatly augmented by the bands of fugitive 
liurons who had taken refuge there. When the 
warriors were warned by Ragueneau's messenger 
of a probable attack from the Iroquois, they were 
far from being daunted, but, confiding in their 
numbers, awaited the enemy in one of those fits 
of valor which characterize the unstable courage of 
the savage. At St. Jean all was paint, feathers, and 
uproar, — singing, dancing, howling, and stamp- 
ing. Quivers "were filled, knives whetted, and toma- 
hawks sharpened ; but when, after two days of 
eager expectancy, the enemy did not appear, the 
warriors lost patience. Thmkmg, and probably with 
reason, that the Iroquois were afraid of them, they 
resolved to sally forth, and take the ofi"ensive. 
With yelps and whoops they defiled into the forest, 
where the branches were gray and bare, and the 
ground thickly covered with snow.- They pushed 
on rapidly till the following day, but could not dis- 
cover their wary enemy, who had made a wide 
ckcuit, and was approaching the town from anoth- 
er quarter. By ill luck, the Iroquois captured a 
Tobacco Indian and his squaw, straggling in the 
forest not far from St. Jean; and the two prisoners, 
to propitiate them, told them the defenceless condi- 
tion of the place, where none remained but women, 
children, and old men. The delighted Iroquois no 
longer hesitated, but silently and swiftly pushed on 
towards the town. 

It was two o'clock in the afternoon of the sev- 



1649.J HIS DEATH. 405 

enth of December.^ Chabanel had left the place 
a day or two before, in obedience to a message 
from Ragueneau, and Garnier was here alone. He 
was making his rounds among the houses, visiting 
the sick and instructing his converts, when the hor- 
rible din of the war-whoop rose from the borders 
of the clearing, and, on the instant, the town was 
mad with terror. Children and girls rushed to and 
fro, blind with fright ; women snatched then- in 
fants, and fled they knew not whither. Garnier 
ran to his chapel, where a few of his converts 
had sought asylum. He gave them his benedic- 
tion, exhorted them to hold fast to the Faith, and 
bade them fly while there was yet time. For 
himself, he hastened back to the houses, run- 
ning from one to another, and giving absolution 
or baptism to all whom he found. An Iroquois met 
him, shot him with three balls through the body 
and thigh, tore oif his cassock, and rushed on in 
pursuit of the fugitives. Garnier lay for a moment 
on the ground, as if stunned ; then, recovering his 
senses, he was seen to rise into a kijeeling posture. 
At a little distance from him lay a Huron, mortally 
wounded, but still showing signs of life. With the 
Heaven that awaited him glowing before his fading 
vision, the priest dragged himself towards the dying 
Indian, to give him absolution ; but his strength 
failed, and he fell again to the earth. He rose once 
more, and again crept forward, when a party of Iro- 
quois rushed upon him, split his head with two 
blows of a hatchet, stripped him, and left his body 

1 Bressani, Rdcalon Ahr^g€e, 264. 



406 GARNIER. [1649. 

on the ground.^ At this time the whole town was 
on fire. The invaders, fearing that the absent war- 
riors might return and take their revenge, hastened 
to finish their work, scattered firebrands every- 
where, and threw childi-en aHve into the burning 
houses. They killed many of the fugitives, cap- 
tured many more, and then made a hasty retreat 
through the forest with their prisoners, butchering 
such of them as lagged on the way. St. Jean lay 
a waste of smoking ruins thickly strewn with black- 
ened corpses of the slain. 

Towards evening, parties of fugitives reached 
St. Matthias, with tidings of the catastrophe. The 
town was wild with alarm, and all stood on the 
watch, in expectation of an attack ; but when, in 
the morning, scouts came in and reported the re- 
treat of the Iroquois, Garreau and Grelon set out 
with a party of converts to visit the scene of havoc. 
For a long time they looked in vain for the body 
of Garnier ; but at length they found him lying 
where he had fallen, — so scorched and disfigured, 
that he was recognized with difficulty. The two 
priests wrapped his body in a part of their own 

1 The above particulars of Garnier's death rest on the evidence of a 
Christian Huron woman, named Marthe, who saw him shot down, and 
also saw his attempt to reach the dying Indian. Slie was herself struck 
down immediately after with a war-club, but remained alive, and escaped 
in the confusion. She died three months later, at Isle St. Joseph, from 
the effects of the injuries she had received, after reaffirming the truth 
of her story to Ragueneau, who was with her, and who questioned her 
on the subject. [Memoires touchant la Mort et les Vertus des Peres Garnier, 
etc., MS.). Ragueneau also speaks of her in Relation des Hurons, 1650, 9. -r 
The priests Grelon and Garreau found the body stripped naked, with 
three gunshot wounds in the abdomen and thigh, and two deep hatchet 
wounds in the head. 



1640.] HIS DEATH. 407 

clothing ; the Indian converts dug a grave on the 
spot where his church had stood; and here they 
buried him. Thus, at the age of forty-four, died 
Charles Garnier, the favorite child of wealthy and 
noble parents, nursed in Parisian luxury and ease, 
then livmg and dying, a more than willing exile, 
amid the hardships and horrors of the Huron wil- 
derness. His life and his death are his best eu- 
logy. Brebeuf was the lion of the Huron mission, 
and Garnier was the lamb ; but the lamb was as 
fearless as the lion.^ 

When, on the following morning, the warriors 
of St. Jean returned from their rash and bootless 

1 Garnier's devotion to the mission was absolute. He took little or 
no interest in the news from France, whicli, at intervals of from one to 
tliree years, found its way to the Huron towns. His companion Bressani 
says, that he would walk thirty or forty miles in the hottest summer day, 
to baptize some dying Indian, when the country was infested by the enemy. 
On similar errands, he would sometimes pass the night alone in the forest 
in the depth of winter. He was anxious to fall into the hands of the 
Iroquois, that he might preach the Faith to them even out of the midst 
of the fire. In one of his unpublished letters he writes, " Praised be our 
Lord, who punishes me for my sins by depriving me of this crown" 
(the crown of martyrdom). After the death of Brebeuf and Lalemant, 
he writes to his brother : — 

" Helas! Mon cher frere, si ma conscience ne me convainquait et ne 
me confondait de mon infide'lite au service de notre bon maitre, je ^.our- 
rais esperer quelque favem- approchante de celles qu'il a faites aux bien- 
heureux martyrs avec qui j'avais le bien de converser souvent, etant 
dans les memes occasions et dangers qu'ils etaient, mais sa justice me 
fait craindre que je ne demeure toujours indigne d'une telle couronne." 

He contented himself with the most wretched fare during the last 
years of famine, living in good measure on roots and acorns ; " although," 
says Ragueneau, " he had been the cherished son of a rich and noble 
house, on whom all the affection of his father had centred, and who had 
been nourished on food very different from that of swine." — Relation des 
Hurons, 1650, 12. 

For his character, see Ragueneau, Bressani, Tanner, and Alegambe, 
who devotes many pages to the description of his religious traits; but the 
complexion of his mind is best reflected in his private letters. 



408 CHABANEL. [1649. 

sally, and saw the ashes of their desolated homes 
and the ghastly relics of their murdered families, 
they seated themselves amid the ruin, silent and 
motionless as statues of bronze, with heads bowed 
down and eyes fixed on the ground. Thus they re- 
mained through half the day. Tears and wailing 
were for women ; this was the mourning of war- 
riors. 

Garnier's colleague, Chabanel, had been recalled 
from St. Jean by an order from the Father Supe- 
rior, who thought it needless to expose the life of 
more than one priest in a position of so much dan- 
ger. He stopped on his way at St. Matthias, and 
on the morning of the seventh of December, the 
day of the attack, left that town with seven or eight 
Christian Hurons. The journey was rough and dif- 
ficult. They proceeded through the forest about 
eighteen miles, and then encamped in the snow. 
The Indians fell asleep ; but Chabanel, from an 
apprehension of danger, or some other cause, re- 
mained awake. About midnight he heard a 
strange sound in the distance, — a confusion of 
fierce voices, mingled with songs and outcries. It 
was the Iroquois on their retreat with their pris- 
oners, some of whom were defiantly singing their 
war-songs, after the Indian custom. Chabanel 
waked his companions, who instantly took flight. 
He tried to follow, but could not keep pace with 
the light-footed savages, who returned to St. Mat- 
thias, and told what had occurred. They said, how- 
ever, that Chabanel had left them and taken an 
opposite direction, in order to reach Isle St. Joseph. 



1649.] mS DEATH. 409 

His brother priests were for some time ignorant 
of what had befallen him. At length a Huron 
Indian, who had been converted, but afterward 
apostatized, gave out that he had met him in the 
forest, and aided him with his canoe to cross a 
river which lay in his path. Some supposed that 
he had lost his way, and died of cold and hunger ; 
but others were of a different opinion. Thek sus- 
picion was confirmed some time afterwards by the 
renegade Huron, who confessed that he had killed 
Chabanel and thrown his body into the river, after 
robbing him of his clothes, his hat, the blanket or 
mantle which was strapped to his shoulders, and 
the bag in which he carried his books and papers. 
He declared that his motive was hatred of the 
Faith, which had caused the ruin of the Hurons.^ 
The priest had prepared himself for a worse fate. 
Before leaving Sainte Marie on the Wye, to go 
to his post in the Tobacco Nation, he had written 
to his brother to regard him as a victim destined to 
the fires of the Iroquois.^ He added, that, though 
he was naturally timid, he was now wholly indifi^er- 
ent to danger ; and he expressed the belief that only 
a superhuman power could have wrought such a 
change in him.^ 

1 Me'moires touchant la Mort et les Vertus des Peres, etc. MS. 

^ Ahreijede la Vie du P. Noel Chabanel. MS. 

3 " le suis fort apprehensif de nion naturel ; toutefois, maintenant 
que ie vay au plus grand danger et qu'il me semble que la mort n'est pas 
esloignee, ie ne sens plus de crainte. Cette disposition ne vient pas de 
moy." — Relation des Hurons, 1650, 18. 

The following is the vow made by Chabanel, at a time when his 
disgust at tlie Indian mode of life beset him with temptations to ask to be 
recalled from the mission. It is translated from the Latin original : — 

35 



410 CHABANEL. [1G49 

Garreau and Grelon, in their mission of St. 
Matthias, were exposed to other dangers than those 
of the Iroquois. A report was spread, not only 
that they were magicians, but that they had a se 
cret understanding with the enemy. A nocturnal 
council was called, and then* death was decreed. 
In the morning, a furious crowd gathered before a 
lodge which they wel*e about to enter, screeching 
and yelling after the manner of Indians when they 
compel a prisoner to run the gantlet. The two 
priests, giving no sign of fear, passed through the 
crowd and entered the lodge unharmed. Hatchets 
were brandished over them, but no one would be 
the first to strike. Their converts were amazed at 
then* escape, and they themselves ascribed it to 
the interposition of a protecting Providence. The 
Hiu'on missionaries were doubly in danger, — not 
more from the Iroquois than from the blind rage of 
those who should have been their friends.' 

" 'My Lord Jesus Christ, who, in the admirable disposition of thy 
paternal providence, hast willed that I, although most unwortliy, should 
be a co-liiborer with the holy Apostles in this vineyard of the Hurons, — 
I, Noel Chabanel, impelled by the desire of fulfilling thy holy will in ad- 
vancing the conversion of the savages of this land to thy faith, do vow^ in 
the presence of the most holy sacrament of thy precious body and blood, 
which is God's tabernacle among men, to remain perpetually attached to 
this mission of t!ie Hurons, understanding all things according to the in- 
terpretation and disposal of the Superiors of the Society of Jesus. There- 
fore I entreat thee to receive me as the perpetual servant of this mission, 
and to render me worthy of so sublime a ministry. Amen. Tiiis 
twentieth day of June, 1647." 

1 Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1650, 20. 

One of these two missionaries, Garreau, was afterwards killed by the 
Iroquois, who shot him through the spine, in 1656, near Montreal. — De 
Quen, Relation, 1656, 41. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

1650-1652. 
THE HURON MISSION ABANDONED. 

Famine and the Tomahawk. — A New Asylum. — Voyage of thb 
Eefugees to Quebec. — Meeting with Bkessani. — Desperaib 
Courage of the Iroquois. — Inroads and Battles. — Death 
of buteux. 

As spring approached, the starving multitude 
on Isle St. Joseph grew reckless with hunger. 
Along the main shore, in spots where the sun lay 
warm, the spring fisheries had already begun, and 
the melting snow was uncovering the acorns in the 
woods. There was danger everywhere, for bands 
of Iroquois were again on the track of their prey.^ 
The miserable Hurons, gnawed with inexorable 
famine, stood in the dilemma of a deadly peril and 
an assured death. They chose the former ; and, 
early in March, began to leave their island and 

1 " Mais le Printemps estant venu, les Iroquois nous furent encore 
plus cruels ; et ce sont eux qui vrayement ont ruine toutes nos espe- 
rances, et qui ont fait vn lieu d'horreur, vne terre de sang et de carnage, 
vn theatre de cruaute et vn sepulchre de carcasses decharnc'es par les 
langueurs d'vne longue famine, d'vn pais de benediction, d'lne terre de 
Saintetc et d'vn lieu qui n'auoit plus rien de barbare, depuis que le sang 
respandu pour son amour auoit rendu tout son peuple Chrestien." — 
Ragueneau, Relation dcs Hurons, 1650, 23. 

[4111 



412 THE HUR02S MISSION ABANDONED. [1650. 

cross to the main-land, to gather what sustenance 
they could. The ice was still thick, but the 
advancing season had softened it ; and, as a body 
of them were crossing, it broke under their feet. 
Some were drowned ; while others dragged them- 
selves out, drenched and pierced with cold, to die 
miserably on the frozen lake, before they could reach 
a shelter. Other parties, more fortunate, gained 
the shore safely, and began their fishing, divided 
into companies of from eight or ten to a hundred 
persons. But the Iroquois were in wait for them. A 
large band of warriors had already made their way, 
through ice and snow, from their towns in Central 
New York. They surprised the Huron fishermen, 
surrounded them, and cut them in pieces without 
resistance, — tracking out the various parties of 
their victims, and hunting down fugitives with such 
persistency and skill, that, of all who had gone 
over to the main, the Jesuits knew of but one who 
escaped.^ 

"My pen," writes Ragueneau, " has no ink black 



1 "Le iour de I'Annonciation, vingt-cinquiesme de Mars, vne annee 
d'lroquois ayans marclie prez de deux cents lieucs de pais, a trauers les 
glaces et les neges, trauersans les montagnes et les forests pleines d'hor- 
reur, surprirent au commencement de la nuit le camp de nos Chrestiens, 
et en firent vne cruelle bouclierie. II sembloit que le Ciel conduisit 
toutes leurs demarches et qu'ils eurent vn Ange pour guide : car ils 
diuiserent leurs troupes auec tant de hon-heur, qu'ils trouuerent en moins 
de deux iours, toutes les bandes de nos Chrestiens qui estoient dispersees 
9a et la, esloignc'es les vnes des autres de six, sept et huit lieues, cent per- 
sonnes en vn lieu, en vn autre cinquante ; et mesme il y auoit quelques 
families solitaires, qui s'estoient escartces en des lieux moins connus et 
hors de tout chemin. Chose estrange ! de tout ce monde dissipe, vn seul 
homme s'eschappa, qui vint nous en apporter les nouuelles." — Eague- 
neau, Relation des Hurons, 1650, 23, 24. 



1660.] DE;5PATR. 413 

enough to describe the fury of the Iroquois." Still 
the goadings of famine were relentless and irresisti- 
ble. '* It is said," adds the Father Superior, " that 
hunger will drive wolves from the forest. So, too, 
our starving Hurons were driven out of a town 
which had become an abode of horror. It was the 
end of Lent. Alas, if these poor Christians could 
have had but acorns and water to keep their fast 
upon ! On Easter Day we caused them to make 
a general confession. On the following morning 
they went away, leaving us all their little possess- 
ions ; and most of them declared publicly that they 
made us their heirs, knowing well that they were 
near their end. And, in fact, only a few days 
passed before we heard of the disaster which we 
had foreseen. These poor people fell into ambus- 
cades of our Iroquois enemies. Some were killed 
on the spot ; some were dragged into captivity ; 
women and children were burned. A few made 
their escape, and spread dismay and panic every- 
where. A week after, another band was overtaken 
by the same fate. Go where they would, they met 
with slaughter on all sides. Famine pursued them, 
or they encountered an enemy more cruel than 
cruelty itself; and, to crown their misery, they 
heard that two great armies of Iroquois were on 
the way to exterminate them. . . . Despair was 
universal." ^ 

The Jesuits at St. Joseph knew not what course 
to take. The doom of their flock seemed inevit- 
able. When dismay and despondency were at 

1 Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1650, 24. 
35* 



414 THE HURON MISSION ABANDONED. [1650. 

their height, two of the principal Huron chiefs 
came to the fort, and asked an interview with 
Ragueneau and his companions. They told them 
that the Indians had held a council the night 
before, and resolved to abandon the island. Some 
would disperse in the most remote and inaccessi- 
ble forests ; others would take refuge in a distant 
spot, apparently the Grand Manitoulin Island ; 
others would try to reach the Andastes ; and others 
would seek safety in adoption and incorporation 
with the Iroquois themselves. 

" Take courage, brother," continued one of the 
chiefs, addressing Ragueneau. '" You can save us, 
if you will but resolve on a bold step. Choose a 
place where you can gather us together, and pre- 
vent this dispersion of our people. Turn your 
eyes towards Quebec, and transport thither what is 
left of this ruined country. Do not wait till war 
and famme have destroyed us to the last man. 
We are in your hands. Death has taken from 
you more than ten thousand of us. If you wait 
longer, not one will remain alive ; and then you 
will be sorry that you did not save those whom 
you might have snatched from danger, and who 
showed you the means of doing so. If you do as 
we wish, we will form a church under the protec- 
tion of the fort at Quebec. Oiu' faith will not be 
extinguished. The examples of the French and 
the Algonquins will encourage us in our duty, 
and their charity will relieve some of our misery. 
At least, we shall sometimes find a morsel of 
bread for our children, who so long have had 



1650.] DEPAKTUllE 415 

nothing but bitter roots and acorns to keep them 
alive." ^ 

The Jesuits were deeply moved. They con- 
sulted together again and again, and prayed in 
turn during forty hours without ceasing, that their 
minds might be enlightened. At length they re- 
solved to grant the petition of the two chiefs, and 
save the poor remnant of the Hurons, by lead- 
ing them to an asylum where there was at least a 
hope of safety. Their resolution once taken, they 
pushed thek preparations with all speed, lest the 
Iroquois might learn their purpose, and lie in wait 
to cut them off. Canoes were made ready, and on 
the tenth of June they began the voyage, with all 
their French- followers and about three hundred 
Hurons. The Huron mission was abandoned. 

" It was not without tears," writes the Father 
Superior, " that we left the country of our hopes and 
our hearts, where our brethren had gloriously shed 
their blood." ^ The fleet of canoes held its melan- 
choly way along the shores where two years before 
had been the seat of one of the chief savage com- 
munities of the continent, and where now all was a 
waste of death and desolation. Then they steered 
northward, along the eastern coast of the Georgian 
Bay, with its countless rocky islets ; and everywhere 
they saw the traces of the Iroquois. When they 
reached Lake Nipissing, they found it deserted, — 

1 Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1650, 25. It appears from the MS. 
Journal des Supcrieurs des Jesuites, that a plan of bringing the remnant 
of the Hurons to Quebec was discussed and approved by Lalemant and 
his associates, in a council liekl by them at that place in April. 

2 Compare Bressani, Relation Abre'ge'e, 288. 



416 THE HURON MISSION ABANDONED. [1650. 

nothing remaining of the Algonquins who dwelt on 
its shore, except the ashes of their burnt wigwams. 
A little farther on, there was a fort built of trees, 
where the Iroquois who made this desolation had 
spent the winter ; and a league or two below, there 
was another similar fort. The Kiver Ottawa was a 
solitude. The Algonquins of Allumette Island and 
the shores adjacent had all been killed or driven 
away, never again to return. " When I came up 
this great river, only thirteen years ago," writes 
Kagueneau, " I found it bordered with Algonquin 
tribes, who knew no God, and, m their infidelity, 
thought themselves gods on earth ; for they had 
all that they desired, abundance of fish and game, 
and a prosperous trade with allied nations : besides, 
they w^ere the terror of their enemies. But since 
they have embraced the Faith and adored the cross 
of Christ, He has given them a heavy share in this 
cross, and made them a prey to misery, torture, 
and a cruel death. In a word, they are a people 
swept from the face of the earth. Our only 
consolation is, that, as they died Christians, they 
have a part in the inheritance of the true chil- 
\ dren of God, who scourgeth every one whom He 
receiveth."^ 

As the voyagers descended the river, they had a 
serious alarm. Their scouts came in, and reported 
that they had fomid fresh footprints of men in the 
forest. These proved, however, to be the tracks, 

1 Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1650, 27. These Algonquins of the 
Ottawa, though hroken and dispersed, were not destroyed, as Eagueneau 
supposes 



1650.] IROQUOIS DARING. 417 

not of enemies, but of friends. In tlie preceding 
autumn Bressani had gone down to the French 
settlements with about twenty Hurons, and was now 
returning with them, and twice their number of 
armed Frenchmen, for the defence of the mission. 
His scouts had also been alarmed by discovering the 
footprints of Ragueneau's Indians ; and for some 
time the two parties stood on their guard, each 
taking the other for an enemy. When at length 
they discovered their mistake, they met with em- 
braces and rejoicing. 'Bressani and his Frenchmen 
had come too late. All was over with the Hurons 
and the Huron mission; and, as it was useless to go 
farther, they joined Ragueneau's party, and retraced 
their course for the settlements. 

A day or two before, they had had a sharp taste 
of the mettle of the enemy. Ten Iroquois warriors 
had spent the winter in a little fort of felled trees 
on the borders of the Ottawa, hunting for sub- 
sistence, and waiting to waylay some passing canoe 
of Hurons, Algonquins, or Frenchmen. Bressani's 
party outnumbered them six to one ; but they re- 
solved that it should not pass without a token of 
their presence. Late on a dark night, the French 
and Hurons lay encamped in the forest, sleeping 
about their tires. They had set guards: but these, 
it seems, were drowsy or negligent; for the ten 
Iroquois, watching their time, approached with the 
stealth of lynxes, and glided like shadows into 
the midst of the camp, where, by the dull glow 
of the smouldering fires, they could distinguish the 
recumbent figures of their victims. Suddenly they 



418 THE HURON MISSION ABANDONED. [1650. 

screeched the war-whoop, and struck like lightning 
with their hatchets among the sleepers. Seven 
were killed before the rest could spring to their 
weapons. Bressani leaped up, and received on the 
instant three arrow-wounds in the head. The Iro- 
quois were surrounded, and a desperate fight en- 
sued m the dark. Six of them were killed on the 
spot, and two made prisoners ; while the remaining 
two, breaking through the crowd, bounded out of 
the camp and escaped in the forest. 

The united parties soon after reached Montreal ; 
but the Hurons refused to remain in a spot so ex- 
posed to the Iroquois. Accordingly, they all de- 
scended the St. Lawrence, and at length, on the 
twenty-eighth of July, reached Quebec. Here the 
Ursulines, the hospital nuns, and the inhabitants 
taxed their resources to the utmost to provide food 
and shelter for the exiled Hurons. Theu' good- 
will exceeded their power ; for food was scarce at 
Quebec, and the Jesuits themselves had to bear the 
chief bui'den of keeping the sufferers alive. ^ 

But, if famine was an e\al, the Iroquois were a 
far greater one ; for, while the western nations of 
their confederacy were engrossed with the destruc- 
tion of the Hurons, the Mohawks kept up incessant 
attacks on the Algonquins and the French. A 
party of Christian Indians, chiefly from Sillery, 
planned a stroke of retaliation, and set out for the 
Mohawk country, marching cautiously and sendmg 
forward scouts to scour the forest. One of these, a 
Huron, suddenly fell in with a large Iroquois war- 

1 Compare Juchereau, Histoire de I'Hotd-Dieu, 79, 80. 



1650.] A HURON TRAITOR. 419 

party, and, seeing that he could not escape, formed 
on the instant a villanous plan to save himself. 
He ran towards the enemy, crying out, that he had 
long been looking for them and was delighted to 
see them ; that his nation, the Hurons, had come 
to an end ; and that henceforth his country was the 
country of the Iroquois, where so many of his kins- 
men and friends had been adopted. He had come, 
he declared, wdth no other thought than that of 
joining them, and turning Iroquois, as they had 
done. The Iroquois demanded if he had come 
alone. He answered, " No," and said, that, in order 
to accomplish his purpose, he had joined an Algon 
quin war-party who were in the woods not fai 
off. The Iroquois, in great delight, demanded to 
be shown where they were. This Judas, as the 
Jesuits call him, at once complied ; and the Algon- 
quins were surprised by a sudden onset, and routed 
with severe loss. The treacherous Huron was well 
treated by the Iroquois, who adopted him into their 
nation. Not long after, he came to Canada, and, 
with a "sdew, as it was thought, to some further 
treachery, rejoined the French. A sharp cross- 
questioning put him to confusion, and he presently 
confessed his guilt. He was sentenced to death ; 
and the sentence was executed by one of his own 
countrymen, who split his head with a hatchet.^ 

In the course of the summer, the French at 
Three Hivers became aware that a band of Iroquois 
was prowling in the neighborhood, and sixty men 
went out to meet them. Far from retreating, the 

1 Ragueneau, Relation, 1650, 30. 



42U 



THE HURON MISSION ABANDONED. [1G51-52. 



Iroquois, ,who were about twenty-five in number, 
got out of their canoes, and took post, waist-deep 
in mud and water, among the tall rushes at the 
margin of the river. Here they fought stubbornly, 
and kept all the Frenchmen at bay. At length, 
finding themselves hard pressed, they entered their 
canoes again, and paddled off. The French rowed 
after them, and soon became separated in the chase ; 
whereupon the Iroquois turned, and made desperate 
fight with the foremost, retreating again as soon as 
the others came up. This they repeated several 
times, and then made their escape, after killing a 
number of the best French soldiers. Their leader 
in this affair was a famous half-breed, known as the 
Flemish Bastard, who is styled by Ragueneau " an 
abomination of sin, and a monster produced between 
a heretic Dutch father and a pagan mother." 

In the forests far •north of Three Kivers dwelt 
the tribe called the Atticamegues, or Nation of the 
White Fish. From their remote position, and the 
difficult nature of the intervening country, they 
thought themselves safe ; but a band of Iroquois, 
marching on snow-shoes a distance of twenty days* 
journey northward from the St. Lawrence, fell upon 
one of their camps in the winter, and made a gen- 
eral butchery of the inmates. The tribe, however, 
still held its ground for a time, and, being all good 
Catholics, gave their missionary, Father Buteux, 
an urgent invitation to visit them in their own 
country. ]3uteux, w^ho had long been stationed at 
Three Rivers, was in ill health, and for years had 
rarely been free from some form of bodily suffering. 



1652.] DEATH OF BTTTEUX. 421 

Nevertheless, he acceded to th^ir request, and, be- 
fore the opening of spring, made a remarkable 
journey on snow-shoes into the depths of this 
frozen wilderness.^ In the year following, he re- 
peated the undertaking. With h^m were a large 
party of Atticamegues, and sever'il Frenchmen. 
Game was exceedingly scarce, and thfy were forced 
by hunger to separate, a Huron convert and a 
Frenchman named Fontarabie remaining with the 
missionary. The snows had melted, and all the 
streams were swollen. The three travellsrs, in a 
small birch canoe, pushed their way up a turbulent 
river, where falls and rapids were so numerous, that 
many times daily they were forced to carry thei/c 
bark vessel and their baggage through forests and 
thickets and over rocks and precipices. On the 
tenth of May, they made two such portages, and: 
soon after, reaching a third fall, again lifted theii' 
canoe from the water. They toiled through the 
naked forest, among the wet, black trees, over 
tangled roots, green, spongy mosses, moulderin§> 
leaves, and rotten, prostrate trunks, while the cat- 
aract foamed amidst the rocks hard by. The In' 
dian led the way with the canoe on his head, while 
Buteux and the other Frenchman followed with the 
baggage. Suddenly they were set upon by a troop 
of Iroquois, who had crouched behind thickets, 
rocks, and fallen trees, to waylay them. The Huron 
was captured before he had time to fly. Buteux 
and the Frenchman tried to escape, but were in 

1 lournal du Pere Jacques Buteux du Voyage qu'il a fait p:ur la Mission 
'tfit Auikamegues. See Relation, 1651, 15. 

86 



422 THE HURON MISSION ALANDONED. [1652. 

stantly shot down, the Jesuit receiving two balls 
in the breast. The Iroquois rushed upon them, 
mangled then' bodies with tomahawks and swords, 
stripped them, and then flung them into the tor- 
tent.^ 

I Ragueneau, Relation, 1652, 2, 3. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

1650-1^66. ^ 

THE LAST OF THE HURONS. 

Faib of the Vanquished. — The Refugees of St. Jean Baftistb 
AND St. Michel. — The Tobacco Nation and its Wanderings. 
— The Modern Wyandots.^The Biter Bit. — The Hoeons 
AT Quebec. — Notre-Dame de Lorette. 

Iroquois bullets and tomahawks had killed the 
Hurons by hundi-eds, but famine and disease had 
killed incomparably more. The miseries of the 
starving crowd on Isle St. Joseph had been shared 
in an equal degree by smaller bands, who had 
wintered in remote and secret retreats of the wil- 
derness. Of those who survived that season of 
death, many were so weakened that they could not 
endure the hardships of a wandering life, which was 
new to them. The Hurons lived by agriculture • 
their fields and crops were destroyed, and they 
were so hunted from place to place that they 
could rarely till the soil. Game was very scarce ; 
and, without agriculture, the country could support 
only a scanty and scattered population like that 
\vliich maintained a struggling existence in the wil- 
derness of the lower St. Lawrence. The mortality 
among the exiles was prodigious. 

[423J 



424 



THE LAST OF THE HUR0J5S 



[1650-60. 



It is a matter of some interest to tuace tlie for- 
tunes of the shattered fragments of a nation once 
prosperous, and, in its own eyes and those of its 
neighbors, powerful and great. None were left 
alive within their ancient domain. Some had 
sought refuge among the Neutrals and the Eries, 
and shared the disasters which soon overwhelmed 
those tribes ; others succeeded in reaching the 
Andastes ; while the inhabitants of two towns, St. 
Michel and St. Jean Baptiste, had recourse to an 
expedient which seems equally strange and desper- 
ate, but which was in accordance with Indian prac- 
tices. They contrived to open a communication 
with the Seneca Natiop. of the Iroquois, and prom- 
ised to change their nationality and turn Senecas 
as the price of their lives. The victors accepted 
the proposal ; and the inhabitants of these two 
towns, joined by a few other Hiu'ons, migrated in 
a body" to the Seneca country. They were not 
distributed among different villages, but were al- 
lowed to form a toAvn by themselves, where they 
were afterwards joined by some prisoners of the 
Neutral Nation. They identified themselves with 
the Iroquois in all but religion, — holding so fast to 
their faith, that, eighteen years after, a Jesuit mis- 
sionary found that many of them were still good 
Catholics.^ 

The division of the Hurons called the Tobacco 
Nation, favored by their isolated position among 



1 Compare Relation, 1651, 4; 1660, 14, 28 ; and 1670, 69. The Huron 
town among the Senecas was called Gandougarae. Father Fremin was 
here in 16G8, and gives an account of his visit in the Relation of 1670. 



1G50-71.] HUROIvS AT MICHILIMACKINAC. 425 

mountains, had held their ground longer than the 
rest ; but at length they, too, were compelled to 
fly, together with such other Hurons as had taken 
refuge with them. They made their way north- 
ward, and settled on the Island of Michilimack- 
inac, where they were joined by the Ottawas, 
who, with other Algonquins, had been driven by 
fear of the Iroquois from the Avestern shores of 
Lake Huron and the banks of the River Ottawa. 
At Michilimackinac the Hurons and thek allies 
were again attacked by the Iroquois, and, after 
remaining several years, they made another re- 
move, and took possession of the islands at the 
mouth of the Green Bay of Lake Michigan. 
Even here then* old enemy did not leave them in 
peace ; whereupon they fortified themselves on the 
main-land, and afterwards migrated southward and 
westward. This brought them in contact with the 
Illinois, an Algonquin people, at that time very 
numerous, but who, like many other tribes at this 
epoch, were doomed to a rapid diminution from wars 
with other savage nations. Continuing thek migra- 
tion westward, the Hurons and Ottawas reached 
the Mississippi, where they fell in with the Sioux. 
They soon quarrelled with those fierce children of 
the prairie, who drove them from their country. 
They retreated to the south-western extremity of 
Lake Superior, and settled on Point Saint Esprit, or 
Shagwamigon Point, near the Islands of the Twelve 
Apostles. As the Sioux continued to harass them, 
they left this place about the year 1671, and 
returned to Michilimackinac, where they settled, 

36* 



426 



THE LAST OF THE HURONS. 



[1650-1866, 



not on the island, but on the neighboring Point 
St. Ignace, now Graham's Point, on the north side 
of the strait. The greater part of them after- 
wards removed thence to Detroit and Sandusky, 
where they hved under the name of Wyandots 
until within the present century, maintaining a 
marked influence over the surrounding Algon- 
quins. They bore an active part, on the side 
of the French, in the war which ended in the 
reduction of Canada ; and they were the most 
formidable enemies of the English in the Indian 
war under Pontiac.^ The government of the 
United States at length removed them to reserves 
on the western frontier, where a remnant of them 
may still be found.' Thus it appears that the Wy- 
andots, whose name is so conspicuous in the history 
of our border wars, are descendants of the ancient 
Hurons, and chiefly of that portion- of them called 
the Tobacco Nation.^ 

When Ragueneau and his party left Isle St. 
Joseph for Quebec, the greater number of the Hu- 
rons chose to remain. They took possession of the 
stone fort which the French had abandoned, and 
where, with reasonable vigilance, they could main- 
tain themselves against attack. In the succeeding 

1 See " History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac." 

2 The migrations of tliis band of the Hurons may be traced by de- 
tached passages and incidental remarks in the Relations of 1654, 1660, 
1667, 1670, 1671, and 1672. Nicolas Perrot, in his chapter, Deffaitle et 
Fiiitte des Hurons chasse's de leur Pays, and in the chapter following, gives 
a long and rather confused account of their movements and adventures. 
See also La Poterie, Histoire de I'Amerique Septentrionale, II. 51-56. Ac- 
cording to the Relation of 1670, the Hurons, when living at Shagwami- 
gon Point, numbered about fifteen hundred souls. 



1650.] fiTIENNE ANNAOTAHA. 427 

autumn a small Iroquois war-party had the auda- 
city to cross over to the island, and build a fort of 
felled trees in the woods. The Hurons attacked 
them; but the invaders made so fierce a defence, 
that they kept their assailants at bay, and at length 
retreated with little or no loss. Soon after, a much 
larger band of Onondaga Iroquois, approaching 
undiscovered, built a fort on the main-land, oppo 
site the island, but concealed from sight in the 
forest. Here they waited to waylay any party of 
Hurons who might venture ashore. A Huron war- 
chief, named Etienne Annaotaha, whose life is de- 
scribed as a succession of conflicts and adventures, 
and who is said to have been always in luck, 
landed with a few companions, and fell into an 
ambuscade of the Iroquois. He prepared to de- 
fend himself, when they called out to him, that they 
came not as enemies, but as friends, and that they 
brought wampum-belts and presents to persuade 
the Hurons to forget the past, go back with them 
to their country, become their adopted countrymen, 
and live with them as one nation. Etienne sus- 
pected treachery, but concealed his distrust, and 
advanced towards the Iroquois with an air of the 
utmost confidence. They received him with open 
arms, and pressed him to accept theh invitation ; but 
he replied, that there were older and wiser men 
among the Hurons, whose counsels all the people 
followed, and that they ought to lay the proposal 
before them. He proceeded to advise them to 
keep him as a hostage, and send over his compan- 
ions, with some of their chiefs, to open the nego- 



4:28 THE LAST OF THE HURONS. [1650. 

tiation. His apparent frankness completelj^ de- 
ceived them ; and they insisted that he himself 
should go to the Huron village, while his compan- 
ions remained as hostages. He set out accordingly 
Avitli three of the principal Iroquois. 

"N^'hen he reached the village, he gave the whoop 
of one who brings good tidings, and proclaimed 
with a loud voice that the hearts of their enemies 
had changed, that the Iroquois would become their 
countrymen and brothers, and that they should 
exchange their miseries for a life of peace and 
plenty in a fertile and prosperous land. The 
whole Huron population, full of joj-ful excitement, 
crowded about him and the three envoys, who were 
conducted to the principal lodge, and feasted on the 
best that the village could supply. Etienne seized 
the opportunity to take aside four or five of the 
principal chiefs, and secretly tell them his suspi- 
cions that the Iroquois were plotting to compass 
their destruction under cover of overtures of peace; 
and he proposed that they should meet treachery 
with treachery. He then explained his plan, which 
was highly approved by his auditors, who begged 
him to charge himself with the execution of it. 
Etienne now caused criers to proclaim through the 
village that every one should get ready to emigrate 
in a few days to the country of their new friends. 
The squaws began their preparations at once, and 
all was bustle and alacrity ; for the Hurons them- 
selves were no less deceived than were the Iro- 
quois envoys. 

During one or two succeeding days, many mes- 



1G50.] THE BITER BIT. 429 

sages and visits passed betw.een the Ilurons and 
the Iroquois, whose confidence was such, that thirty- 
seven of their best warriors at length came over in 
a body to the Huron village. Etienne's time had 
come. He and the chiefs who were in the secret 
gave the word to the Huron warriors, who, at a 
signal, raised the war-whoop, rushed upon their 
visitors, and cut them to pieces. One of them, 
who linoered for a time, owned before he died that 
Etienne's suspicions were just, and that they had 
designed nothing less than the massacre or capture 
of all the Hurons. Three of the Iroquois, imme- 
diately before the slaughter began, had received 
from Etienne a warning of their danger in time to 
make their escape. The year before, he had been 
captured, with Brebeuf and Lalemant, at the town 
of St. Louis, and had owed his life to these three 
warriors, to whom he now paid back the debt of 
gratitude. They carried tidings of what had be- 
fallen to their countrymen on the main-land, who, 
aghast at the catastrophe, fled homeward in a 
panic. ^ 

Here was a sweet morsel of vengeance. The 
miseries of the Hurons were lighted up with a 
brief gleam of joy ; but it behooved them to make 
a timely retreat from their island before the Iro- 
quois came to exact a bloody retribution. Towards 
spring, while the lake was still frozen, many of 



1 Ragueneau, Relation des Ilurons, 1651, 5, 6. Le Mercier, in the Re- 
lation of 1654, preserves the speech of a Huron chief, in wliicli lie speaks 
of this affiiir, and adds some particulars not mentioned by Ragueneau. 
He gives thirty-four as the number killed. 



430 THE LAST OF THE HURONS. [1651-55. 

them escaped on the ice, while another party after- 
wards followed in canoes. A few, who had neither 
strength to walk nor canoes to transport them, per- 
force remained behind, and were soon massacred 
by the Iroquois. The fugitives directed their 
course to the Grand Manitoulin Island, where 
they remained for a short time, and then, to the 
number of about four hundred, descended the Ot- 
tawa, and rejoined their countrymen who had gone 
to Quebec the year before. 

These united parties, joined from time to time by 
a few other fugitives, formed a settlement on land 
belonging to the Jesuits, near the south-western 
extremity of the Isle of Orleans, immediately below 
Quebec. Here the Jesuits built a fort, like that 
on Isle St. Joseph, with a chapel, and a small 
house for the missionaries, while the bark dwell- 
ings of the Hurons were clustered around the pro- 
tecthig ramparts.^ Tools and seeds were given 
them, and they were encouraged to cultivate the 
soil. Gradually they rallied from tlieii' dejection, 
and the mission settlement was beginning to wear 
an appearance of thrift, when, in 1656, the Iro- 
quois made a descent upon them, and carried 
off a large number of captives, under the very 
cannon of Quebec ; the French not daring to iire 
upon the invaders, lest they should take revenge 

1 The site of the fort was the estate now known as " La Terre du 
Fort," near the landing of the steam ferry. In 1856, Mr. N. H. Bowen, 
a resident near the spot, in making some excavations, found a solid stone 
wall five feet thick, which, there can be little doubt, was that of the work 
in question. This wall was originally crowned with paUsades, See 
Bowen, Historical Sketch of the Isle of Orleans, 25. 



J 



1673.] OLD LORETTE. 431 

upon the Jesuits who were at that time in their 
country. This calamity was, four years after, fol- 
lowed by another,,when the best of the Huron war- 
riors, including their leader, the crafty and valiant 
Etienne Annaotaha, were slain, lighting side by 
side with the French, in the desperate conthct of 
the Long Sault.^ 

The attenuated colony, replenished by some 
straggling bands of the same nation, and still num- 
bering several hundred persons, was removed to 
Quebec after the inroad in 1656, and lodged in 
a square inclosure of palisades close to the fort.^ 
Here they remained about ten years, when, the 
danger of the times having diminished, they were 
again removed to a place called Notre-Dame de 
Foy, now Ste. Foi, three or four miles west of 
Quebec. Six years after, when the soil was im- 
poverished and the wood in the neighborhood 
exhausted, they again changed their abode, and, 
under the auspices of the Jesuits, who owned the 
land, settled at Old Lorette, nine miles from Que- 
bec. 

Chaumonot was at this time their missionary. 
It may be remembered that he had professed spe- 
cial devotion to Our Lady of Loretto, who, in 
his boyhood, had cured him, as he believed, of a 
distressing malady.^ He had always cherished the 
idea of building a chapel in honor of her in Canada, 



1 Relation, 1660 (anonymous), 14. 

'•^ In a plan of Quebec of 1660, the " Fort des Hurons " is laid down 
on a spot adjoining the north side of the present Place d'Armes. 
» See ante, p. 102. 



4:32 THE LAST OF THE HURONS. [1674. 

after the model of the Holy House of Loretto, — 
which, as all the world knows, is the house where- 
in Saint Joseph dwelt with his wgin spouse, and 
which angels bore through the air from the Holy 
Land to Italy, where it remains an object of pil- 
grimage to this day. Chaumonot opened his plan 
to his brother Jesuits, who were delighted with 
it, and the chapel was begun at once, not without 
the intervention of miracle to aid in raising the 
necessary funds. It was built of brick, like its 
original, of which it was an exact facsimile ; and 
it stood in the centre of a quadrangle, the four 
sides of which were formed by the bark dwell- 
ings of the Hurons, ranged with perfect order in 
straight lines. Hither came many pilgrims from 
Quebec and more distant settlements, and here 
Our Lady granted to her suppliants, says Chau- 
monot, many miraculous favors, insomuch that "it 
would require an entire book to describe them 
aU." ' 

But the Hurons were not destined to remain 
permanently even here ; for, before the end of the 
century, they removed to a place four miles distant, 
now called New Lorette, or Indian Lorette. It 
was a wild spot, covered with the primitive forest, 
and seamed by a deep and tortuous ravine, where 

1 " Les graces qu'on y obtient par I'entremise de la Mere de Dieu 
vont jusqu'au miracle. Comme il faudroit composer un livre entier pour 
decrire toutes ces faveurs extraordinaires, je n'en rapporterai que deux, 
ayant ete' te'moin oculaire de I'une et propre sujet de I'autre." — Vie, 95. 

The removal from Notre-Dame de Eoy took place at the end of 1673, 
and the chapel was finished in the following year. Compare Vie de 
Chaumonot with Dablon, Relation, 1672-73, p. 21 ; and Ibid., Relation, 
1673-79, p. 259. 



16' j7 -1863.] INDIAN LORETTE. 433 

the St. Charles foams, white as a snow-drift, over 
the black ledges, and where the sunlight struggles 
through matted boughs of the pine and fir, to bask 
for brief moments on the mossy rocks or flash on 
the hiuTymg waters. On a plateau beside the tor- 
rent, another chapel was built to Our Lady, and 
another Huron town sprang up ; and here, to this 
day, the toui-ist finds the remnant of a lost people, 
harmless weavers of baskets and sewers of mocca- 
sins, the Huron blood fast bleaching out of them, 
as, with every generation, they mingle and fade 
away in the French population around.^ 

i An interesting account of a visit to Indian Lorette in 1721 will be 
found in the Journal Historique of Charlevoix. Kalm, in his Travels in 
North America, describes its condition in 1749. See also Le Beau, Aven- 
tures, I. 103 ; wLc, however, can hardly be regarded as an authority. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

1650-1670. 
THE DESTROYERS. 

Iroquois Ambition. — Its Victims. — The Fate of the Nur'TEALfc 

— The Fate of the Fries. — The War with the AsvxsiEi 

— SupREMAcr of the Iroquois. , 

It was well for the European colonies, above 
all for those of England, that the wisdom of the 
Iroquois was but the wisdom of savages. Their 
sagacity is past denying ; it showed itself in many 
ways ; but it was not equal to a comprehension of 
their own situation and that of their race. Could 
they have read their destiny, and curbed their mad 
ambition, they might have leagued with themselves 
four great communities of kindred lineage, to re- 
sist the encroachments of civilization, and oppose 
a barrier of fire to the spread of the young col- 
onies of the East. But their organization and 
their intelligence were merely the instruments of 
a blind frenzy, which impelled them to destroy 
those whom they might have made then* allies in 
a common cause. 

Of the four kindred communities, two at least, 

(4341 



1650.] IROQUOIS CRAFT. 435 

the Huron s and the Neutrals, were probably supe- 
rior in numbers to the Iroquois. Either one of 
these, with union and leadership, could have held 
its ground against them, and the two united could 
easily have crippled them beyond the power of 
doing mischief. But these so-called nations were 
mere aggregations of villages and families, with 
nothing that deserved to be called a government. 
They were very liable to panics, because the part 
attacked by an enemy could never rely with confi- 
dence on prompt succor from the rest ; and when 
once broken, they could not be rallied, because they 
had no centre around which to gather. The Iro- 
quois, on the other hand, had an organization with 
which the ideas and habits of several generations 
were interwoven, and they had also sagacious lead- 
ers for peace and war. They discussed all ques- 
tions of policy with the coolest deliberation, and 
knew how to turn to profit even imperfections in 
their plan of government which seemed to promise 
only weakness and discord. Thus, any nation, 
or any large town, of their confederacy, could 
make a separate war or a separate peace with a 
foreign nation, or any part of it. Some member 
of the league, as, for example, the Cayugas, would 
make a covenant of friendship with the enemy, and, 
while the infatuated victims were thus lulled into a 
delusive security, the war-parties of the other na- 
tions, often joined by the Cayuga warriors, would 
overwhelm them by a sudden onset. But it was not 
^ by. their craft, nor by their organization, — which 
for military purposes was wretchedly feeble, — 



436 THE DESTROYERS. [1650-61. 

that this handful of savages gained a bloody su- 
premacy They carried all before them, because 
they were animated throughout, as one man, by 
the same audacious pride and insatiable rage for 
conquest. Like other Indians, they waged war on 
apian altogether democratic, — that is, each man 
fought or not, as he saw fit ; and they owed their 
unity and vigor of action to the homicidal frenzy 
that urged them all alike. 

The Neutral Nation had taken no part, on either 
side, in the war of extermination against the Hu- 
rons ; and their towns were sanctuaries where either 
of the contending parties might take asylum. On 
the other hand, they made fierce war on theh west- 
ern neighbors, and, a few years before, destroyed, 
with atrocious cruelties, a large fortified town of 
the Nation of Fire.^ Their turn was now come, 
and their victims found fit avengers ; for no sooner 

1 " Last summer," writes Lalemant in 1643, " two thousand warriors 
of the Neutral Nation attacked a town of tlie Nation of Fire, well forti- 
fied with a palisade, and defended by nine hundred warriors. They took 
it after a siege of ten days ; killed many on the spot ; and made eight 
hundred prisoners, men, women, and children. After burning seventy of 
the best warriors, they put out the eyes of the old men, and cut away 
their lips, and then left them to drag out a miserable existence. Behold 
the scourge that is depopulating all this country ! " — Relation des Harons, 
1644, 98. 

The Assistaeronnons, Atsistaehonnons, Mascoutins, or Nation of Fire 
(more correctly, perhaps. Nation of the Prairie), were a very numerous 
Algonquin people of the West, speaking the same language as the Sacs 
and Foxes. In the map of Sanson, they are placed in the southern part 
*of Michigan; and according to the Relation of ll)58, they had thirty 
towns. They were a stationary, and in some measure an agricultural 
people. They fled before their enemies to the neighborhood of Fox 
River in Wisconsin, where they long remained. Frequent mention of 
tliem will be found in the later Relations, and in contemporary documents. 
They are now extinct as a tribe. 



] 651-54.] THE EKIE WAE. 437 

were the Hurons broken up and dispersed, than 
the Iroquois, without waiting to take breath, 
turned their fury on the Neutrals. At the end of 
the autumn of 1650, they assaulted and took one 
of their chief towns, said to have contained at 
the time more tban sixteen hundred men, besides 
women and children ; and early in the following 
spring, they took another town. The slaughter 
was prodigious, and the victors drove back troops 
of captives for butchery or adoption. It was the 
death-blow of the Neutrals. They abandoned 
their corn-fields and villages in the wildest terror, 
and dispersed themselves abroad in forests, which 
could not yield sustenance to such a multitude. 
They perished by thousands, and from that time 
forth the nation ceased to exist.' 

During two or three succeeding years, the Iro- 
quois contented themselves with harassing the 
French and Algonquins ; but in 1653 they made 
treaties of peace, each of the five nations for itself, 
and the colonists and their red allies had an interval 
of rest. In the following May, an Onondaga ora- 
tor, on a peace visit to Montreal, said, in a speech 

^ Ragueneau, Relation, 1651, 4. In the unpublished journal kept by 
the Superior of the Jesuits at Quebec, it is said, under date of April, 
1651, tliat news had just come from Montreal, that, in the preceding 
autumn, fifteen hundred Iroquois had taken a Neutral town ; that the 
Keutrals had afterwards attacked them, and killed two hundred of their 
warriors ; and that twelve hundred Iroquois liad again invaded the Neu- 
tral country to take their revenge. Lafitau, Mncurs des Sauvages, II. 176, 
gives, on the authority of Father Julien Gamier, a singular and improb- 
able account of the origin of the war. 

An old chief, named Kenjockety, who claimed descent from an 
adopted prisoner of the Neutral Nation, was jecently living among the 
Senecas of Western New York. 

87* 



438 THE DESTROYERS. [1654. 

to the Governor, " Our young men will no more 
fight the French ; but they are too warlike to stay 
at home, and this summer we sliall invade the 
country of the Eries. The earth trembles and 
quakes in that quarter ; but here all remains 
calm." ^ Early in the autumn, Father Le Mojiio, 
who had taken advantage of the peace to go on a 
mission to the Onondagas, returned with the tidings 
that the Iroquois were all on tire with this new 
enterprise, and were about to march against the 
Eries with eighteen hundred warriors.^ 

The occasion of this new war is said to have been 
as follows. The Eries, who it will be remembered 
dwelt on the south of the lake named after them, 
had made a treaty of peace with the Senecas, and 
in the preceding year had sent a deputation of thirty 
of their principal men to confirm it. While they 
were in the great Seneca town, it happened that 
one of that nation was killed in a casual quarrel 
with an Erie ; whereupon his countrymen rose in a 
fury, and murdered the thirty deputies. Then en- 
sued a brisk war of reprisals, in which not only the 
Senecas, but the other Iroquois nations, took part. 
The Eries captured a famous Onondaga chief, and 
were about to burn him, when he succeeded in con- 
vincing them of the wisdom of a course of concilia- 
tion ; and they resolved to give him to the sister 
of one of the murdered deputies, to take the place 
of her lost brother. The sister, by Indian law, had 

1 Le Mercier, Relation, 1654, 9. 

2 Ibid., 10. Le ]Mo3'ne, in his interesting journal of his mission, 
repeatedly alludes to their preparations. 



1654.] A SISTER'S REVENGE. 439 

it ill her choice to receive him with a fraternal 
embrace or to burn him ; but, though she was ab- 
sent at the time, no one doubted that she would 
choose the gentler alternative. Accordingly, ho 
was clothed in gay attire, and all the town fell to 
feasting in honor of his adoption. In the iriidst of 
the festivity, the sister returned. To the amaze- 
ment of the Erie chiefs, she rejected with indig- 
nation their proffer of a new brother, declared that 
she would be revenged for her loss, and insisted 
that the prisoner should forthwith be burned. The 
chiefs remonstrated in vain, representing the danger 
in which such a procedure would involve the nation : 
the female fury was inexorable ; and the unfortunate 
prisoner, stripped of his festal robes, was bound to 
the stake, and put to death. ^ He warned his tor- 
mentors with his last breath, that they were burning 
not only him, but the whole Erie nation ; since his 
countrymen would take a fiery vengeance for his 
fate. His words proved true; for no sooner was 
his story spread abroad among the Iroquois, than 
the confederacy resounded with war-songs from end 
to end, and the warriors took the field under their 
two great war-chiefs. Notwithstanding Le Moyne's 
report, their number, according to the Iroquois ac- 
count, did not exceed twelve hundred.^ 

They embarked in canoes on the lake. At their 
approach the Eries fell back, withdrawing into the 

1 De Quen, Relation, 1656, 30. 

i* This was tlieir statement to Chaumonot and Dablon, at Onondaga, 
in November of tliis year. Tliey added, tliat tlie number of tlie Eriea 
was between three and four thousand. (Journal des PP. Chaumonot et 
DaHo7i, in Relation, 1656, 18.) In the narrative of De Quen {Ibid., 30, 31 ), 



4:40 THE DESTROYERS. [1655 

forests towards the west, till they were gathered 
into one body, Avhen, fortifying themselves with 
palisades and felled trees, they awaited the ap- 
proach of the invaders. By the lowest estimate, 
the Eries numbered two thousand warriors, be- 
sides \^omen and children. But this is the report 
of the Iroquois, w^ho were natiu-ally disposed to 
exaggerate the force of their enemies. 

They approached the Erie fort, and two of 
their chiefs, dressed like Frenchmen, advanced and 
called on those within to surrender. One of them 
had lately been baptized by Le Moyne ; and he 
shouted to the Eries, that, if they did not yield in 
time, they were all dead men, for the Master of Life 
was on the side of the Iroquois. The Eries an- 
swered with yells of derision. " Who is this master 
of your lives ? " they cried ; " our hatchets and our 
right arms are the masters of ours." The Iro- 
quois rushed to the assault, but were met with a 
shower of poisoned arrows, which killed and wound- 
ed many of them, and drove the rest back. They 
waited awhile, and then attacked again with un- 
abated mettle. This time, they carried their bark 
canoes over their heads like huge shields, to pro- 
tect them from the storm of arrows ; then plant- 
ing them upright, and mounting them by the 
cross-bars like ladders, scaled the barricade with 



based, of course, on Iroquois reports, tlie Iroquois force is also set down 
at twelve hundred, but that of the Eries is reduced to between two and 
three thousand warriors. Even this may safely be taken as an exag- 
geration. 

Though the Eries had no fire-arms, they used poisoned arrows with 
great effect, discharging tliem, it is said, with surprising rapidity. 



11350-62] THE AMDASTES. 441 

such impetuous fury that the Eries were thrown 
into a panic. Those escaped who could ; but the 
butchery was frightful, and from that day the Eries 
as a nation were no more. The victors paid dear 
for their conquest. Then* losses were so heavy that 
they were forced to remain for two months in the 
Erie country, to bury their dead and nurse their 
wounded.^ 

One enemy of their own race remained, — the 
Andastes. This nation appears to have been inferior 
in number's to either the Hurons, the Neutrals, or 
the Eries ; but they cost their assailants more trouble 
than all these- united. The Mohawks seem at first 
to have borne the brunt of the Andaste war ; and, 
between the years 1650 and 1660, they were so 
roughly handled by these stubborn adversaries, that 
they were reduced from the height of audacious 
insolence to the depths of dejection.^ The remain- 

1 De Quen, Relation, 1656, 31. The Iroquois, it seems, afterwards 
made other expeditions, to finish their work. At least, they told Chau- 
monot and Dablon, in the autumn of this year, that they meant to do so 
in the following spring. 

It seems, that, before attacking the great fort of the Eries, the Iroquois 
had made a promise to worship the new God of the French, if He would 
give them the victory. This promise, and the success which followed, 
proved of great advantage to the mission. 

Various traditions are extant among the modern remnant of the Iro- 
quois concerning the war with the Eries. They agree in little beyond 
the fact of the existence and destruction of that people. Indeed, Indian 
traditions are very rarely of any value as historical evidence. One ol 
these stories, told me some years ago by a very inteUigent Iroquois of the 
Cayuga Nation, is a striking illustration of Iroquois ferocity. It repre- 
sents, that, the niglit after the great battle, the forest was lighted up with 
more than a thousand fires, at each of which an Erie was bm-ning alive. 
It difl!ers from the historical accounts in making the Eries the aggressors. 

2 Relation, 1660, 6 (anonymous). 

The Mohaivks also suffered great reverses about this time at the 
hands of their Algonquin neighbors, the Mohicans. 



442 THE DESTROYERS. [16G2-72. 

ing four nations of the Iroquois league now took 
up the quarrel, and fared scarcely better than the 
Mohawks. In the spring of 1662, eight hundred 
of their warriors set out for the Andaste country, 
to strike a decisive blow ; but when they reached 
the great town of their enemies, they saw that they 
had received both aid and counsel from the neigh- 
boring Swedish colonists. The town was fortified 
by a double palisade, flanked by two bastions, on 
which, it is said, several small pieces of cannon 
were mounted. Clearly, it was not to be carried 
by assault, as the invaders had promised them- 
selves. Their only hope was in treachery ; and, 
accordingly, twenty-five of their warriors gained 
entrance, on pretence of settling the terms of a 
peace. Here, again, ensued a grievous disappoint- 
ment ; for the Andastes seized them all, built high 
scaffolds visible from without, and tortured them to 
death in sight of their countrymen, who thereupon 
decamped in miserable discomfiture.^ 

The Senecas, by far the most numerous of the 
five Iroquois nations, now found themselves at- 
tacked in turn, — and this, too, at a time when they 
were full of despondency at the ravages of the 
small-pox. The French reaped a profit from their 
misfortunes ; for the disheartened savages made 
them overtures of peace, and begged that they 
would settle in their country, teach them to for- 
tify their towns, supply them with arms and am- 
munition, and bring " black-robes " to show them 
the road to Heaven.^ 

1 Lalemant, Relation, 1663, 10. 2 Ibid., 1664, 33. 



1672-75.] THE ANDASTES SUBDUED. 443 

The Andaste war became a war of inroads and 
skirmishes, under which the weaker party gradu- 
ally wasted away, though it sometimes won laurels 
at the expense of its adversary. Thus, in 1672, a 
party of twenty Senecas and forty Cayugas went 
against the Andastes. They were at a considerable 
distance the one from the other, the Cayugas being 
in advance, when the Senecas were set upon by 
about sixty young Andastes, of the class known as 
" Burnt-Knives," or " Soft-Metals," because as yet 
they had taken no scalps. Indeed, they are de- 
scribed as mere boys, fifteen or sixteen years old. 
They killed one of the Senecas, captured another, 
and put the rest to flight ; after which, flushed with 
their victory, they attacked the Cayugas with the 
utmost fury, and routed them completely, killing 
eight of them, and wounding twice that number, 
who, as is reported by the Jesuit then in the Cayuga 
towns, came home half dead with gashes of knives 
and hatchets.^ "May God preserve the Andastes," 
exclaims the Father, " and prosper their arms, that 
the Iroquois may be humbled, and we and our 
missions left in peace ! " " None but they," he else- 
where adds, " can curb the pride of the Iroquois." 
The only strength of the Andastes, however, was 
in their courage : for at this time they were reduced 
to three hundred fighting men ; and about the year 
1675 they were finally overborne by the Senecas.^ 
Yet they were not wholly destroyed ; for a remnant 

1 Dablon, Relation, 1672, 24. 

2 Etat Present des Missions, in Relations In€dites, II. 44. Relation, 
1676, 2. This is one of the Relations printed by Mr. Lenox. 



4:44 THE DESTROYERS. [1660-75 

of this valiant people continued to subsist, under 
the name of Conestogas, for nearly a century, until, 
in 1763, they were butchered, as already mentioned, 
by the v/hite ruffians known as the " Paxton Boys."^ 

The bloody triumphs of the Iroquois were com- 
plete. They had " made a solitude, and called it 
peace." All the surrounding nations of their own 
lineage were conquered and broken up, while 
neighboring Algonquin tribes were suffered to 
exist only on condition of paying a yearly tribute 
of wampum. The confederacy remained a wedge 
thrust between the growing colonies of France and 
England. 

But what was the state of the conquerors 1 
Their triumphs had cost them dear. As early as 
the year 1660, a writer, evidently well-informed, 
reports that their entire force had been reduced to 
twenty-two hundred warriors, while of these not 
more than twelve hundred were of the true Iro- 
quois stock. The rest was a medley of adopted 
prisoners, — Hurons, Neutrals, Eries, and Indians 
of various Algonquin tribes.^ Still their aggressive 

1 " History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac," Chap. XXIY. Compare 
Shea, in Historical Magazine, II. 297. 

2 Relation, 1G60, 6, 7 (anonymous). Le Jeune says, "Their victories 
have so depopulated their towns, that there are more foreigners in them 
than natives. At Onondaga there are Indians of seven different na- 
tions permanently established ; and, among the Senecas, of no less than 
eleven." {Relation, 1657, 34.) These were either adopted prisoners, or 
Indians who had voluntarily joined the Iroquois to save themselves from 
their hostility. They took no part in councils, but were, expected to 
join war-parties, though they were usually excused from fighting against 
their former countrymen. The condition of female prisoners was little 
better than that of slaves, and those to whom they were assigned ofteu 
killed tliem on the slightest pique. 



1660-75.] IROQUOIS UBIQUITY. 445 

spirit was unsubdued. These incorrigible warriors 
pushed their murderous raids to Hudson's Bay, 
Lake Superior, the Mississippi, and the Tennessee ; 
they were the tyrants of all the intervening wil- 
derness ; and they remained, for more than half 
a century, a terror and a scourge to the afflicted 
colonists of New France. 



8P 



CHAPTER XXXrV. 



THE END. 



Failure ov the Jesuits. — "What theib Success would hats 
INVOLVED. — Future of the Mission. 

With tlie fall of the Hurons, fell the best hope 
of the Canadian mission. They, and the stable 
and populous communities around them, had been 
the rude material from which the Jesuit would 
have formed his Christi'^n empke in the wilder- 
ness ; but, one by one, these kindred peoples were 
uprooted and swept away, whil6 the neighbor- 
ing Algonquins, to whom they had been a bul- 
wark, were involved with them in a common ruin. 
The land of promise was tiu'ned to a solitude and a 
desolation. There was still work in hand, it is true, 
— vast regions to explore, and countless heathens 
to snatch from perdition ; but these, for the most 
part, were remote and scattered hordes, from whose 
conversion it was vain to look for the same solid 
and decisive results. 

In a measure, the occupation of the Jesuits was 
gone. Some of them went home, " well resolved," 

[446] 



THE HOPES OE. NEW EKANCE. 447 

writes the Father Superior, " to return to the com- 
bat at the first sound of the trumpet ; " ^ while of 
those who remained, about twenty in number, sev- 
eral soon fell victims to famine, hardship, and the 
Iroquois. A few years more, and Canada ceased 
to be a mission ; political and commercial interests 
gradually became ascendant, and the story of Jesuit 
propagandism was interwoven with her civil and 
military annals. 

Here, then, closes this wild and bloody act of the 
great drama of New France ; and now let the cur- 
tain fall, while we ponder its meaning. 

The cause of the failure of the Jesuits is obvious. 
The guns and tomahawks of the Iroquois were the 
ruin of theii- hopes. Could they have curbed or 
converted those ferocious bands, it is little less than 
certain that their dream would have become a real- 
ity. Savages tamed — not civilized, for that Avas 
scarcely possible — would have been distributed 
in communities through the valleys of the Great 
Lakes and the Mississippi, ruled by priests in the 
interest of Catholicity and of France. Their habits \ 
of agriculture would have been developed, and their 
instincts of mutual slaughter repressed. The swift 
decline of the Indian population would have been 
arrested; aijd it would have been made, through 
the fur-trade, a source of prosperity to New France. 
Unmolested by Indian enemies, and fed by a rich 
commerce, she would have put forth a vigorous 
growth. True to her far-reaching and adventurous \ 
genius, she would have occupied the West with , I 

1 Lettre de Lalemant au R. P. Provincial [Relation, 1650, 481. 



44b THE END. 

traders, settlers, and garrisons, and cut up the virgin 
wilderness into fiefs, while as yet the colonies of 
England were but a weak and broken line along 
the shore of the Atlantic ; and when at last the 
great conflict came, England and Liberty would 
have been confronted, not by a depleted antagonist, 
still feeble from the exhaustion of a starved and 
persecuted infancy, but byanathletic champion of 
the principles of Richelieu and of Loyola.^ 
~~~~I:;iberty~may thank the Iroquois, that, by their 
insensate fury, the plans of her adversary were 
brought to nought, and a peril and a woe averted 
from her future. They ruined the trade which was 
the life-blood of New Trance ; they stopped the 
current of her arteries, and made all her early years 
a misery and a terror. Not that they changed her 
destinies. The contest on this continent between 
Liberty and Absolutism was never doubtful ; but 
the triumph of the one would have been dearly 
bought, and the downfall of the other incomplete. 
Popidations formed in the ideas and habits of a 
feudal monarchy, and controlled by a hierarchy pro- 
foundly hostile to freedom of thought, would have 
remained a hindrance and a stumbling-block in the 
way of that majestic experiment of which America 
is the field. 

The Jesuits saw their hopes struck down ; and 
their faith, though not shaken, was sorely tried. 
T'he Providence of God seemed in their eyes dark 
and inexplicable ; but, from the stand-point of Lib- 
erty, that Providence is clear as the sun at noon. 
Meanwhile let those who have prevailed yield due 



THE GREAT WEST. 449 

honor to the defeated. Their vu'tues shine amidst 
the rubbish of error, like diamonds and gold in the 
gravel of the torrent. 

But now new scenes succeed, and other actors 
enter on the stage, a hardy and valiant band, 
moulded to endure and dare, — the Discoverers 
of the Great West. 



I N D E X. 



i 



1 1^ D E X. 



THB ROMAN NUMKRALS REFER TO THE INTKODUCTIOK. 



Abenaquis, where found, xxii; ask for 
a missionary, 321, 

Abraham, Plains of, whence the name, 
335 note. 

Adoption of prisoners as members of 
the tribe, Ixvi, 223, 309, 424, 444. 

A(Jventures and sutFerings of an Al- 
gonquin woman, 309-313; of an- 
other, 313-316. 

Agnier, a name for the Mohawks, xlviii 
note. 

Aiguillon, Duchess d', founds a Hotel- 
Dieu at Quebec, 181. 

Albany, formerly Rensselaersw}'ck, its 
condition in 1643, 229. 

Alf/onquins, a comprehensive term, xx; 
regions occupied b}- tliem in 1535, 
XX ; thi! designation, how applied, 
ib. note ; found in New England, 
xxi; their relation to the Iroquois, 
xxi; numbers, ib.; Algonquin mis- 
sions, 36S. 

AUumette Island, xxiv, 45; its true 
position, 46. 

Aiiiikou'is, or People of the Beaver, 
Ixviii ■nute ; supposed descent from 
that animal, ib. 

ikmusements of the Indians, xxxvi; 
the Jesuits require them to be aban- 
doned, 136. 

Aii-i (civ.mdet, a strange method of cure, 
xiii. 

Aiuldstes, where found in the early 
times, XX, xlvi; fierce warriors, xlvi; 
identical with the Susquehannocks, 



ib. note; their aid sought by tne 
Hurons, 341; the result unsatisfac- 
tory, 344 seq.; war with tiie Mo- 
hawks, 441 ; assisted by the Swedes 
from Delaware Kiver, 442; repulse an 
attack of the Iroquois, ib. ; a party 
of Andaste bo}'s defeat the Senecas 
and Cayugas, 443; finally subdued 
■ b}' the Senecas, ib. 

Aquanuscioni, or Iroquois, xlviii note. 

Areskoui, the god of war, Ixxvii; 
human sacrifices offered to him, ib. ; 
a captive Iroquois sacrificed to him, 
81. 

Annouchiquois, a name applied to the 
Algonquins of New England, xxi ; a 
strange account of them given by 
Champlain, xxii note. 

Arts of life, as practised by the Hurons, 
xxxi. 

Assistaerunnons. or Nation of Fire. See 
Nation of Fire. 

Ataentsic, a malignant deity; the moon, 
Ixxvi. 

Aiahocan, a dim conception of the Su- 
preme Being, Ixxiv. 

Atotarho ot the 0: ondagas, liv, Ivii. 

Attendants of the Jesuits, 112 note, 
132. See Donr^'s. 

Atticnmi'fjves, xxiii, 286, 293 ; attacked 
bv the Iroquois, 420. 

Attigcunntans. See Hurons. 

Attiwandarons, or Neutral Nation, whv 
so called, xliv; tiieir countrv, ih. ; 
ferocious and cruel, xlv; licentious, 
ib. ; their treatment of the dead, ib. 
See Neutral Nation. 

[453] 



454 



INDEX. 



B. 

Baptism of d^-injT men, 89, 124; clan- 
destine, of "inlaiits, 96, 97, IIG, 117; 
of an influential Huron, 112; condi- 
tions of baptism, 134; baptisms, 
number in a year. 136 nofe. 

Bircli-bari^ used instead of writing- 
paper, 130. 

Roiirgeoys, Marguerite, her character, 
201; foundress of the school at 
Montreal, 202. 

Bradford, William, governor of Ply- 
mouth, kindly entertains the Jesuit 
Druilletes, 327. 

Bri'beuf, .lean de, arrives at Quebec, 
5, 20, 48; commences his journey to 
the Huron country, o3: sutlers great 
fatigue by the way, 54; his intre- 
jiidity, 54 nvte, 56; arrives in the 
Huron country, 56; his previous 
residence there, Uj. ; his misgivings 
as to his future treatment by the 
Indians, 57 imle; the Indians build 
a house for him, 59: the house de- 
scribed, 60; its furniture, ib. ; Brc- 
beuf witnesses the " Feast of the 
Dead," 75; witnesses a human sacri- 
lice, 80 .sty. ,• his uncompromising 
manner, 90; ''the Ajax ot the mis- 
sion," 99; his dealings with beings 
from the invisible world, 108: sees a 
great cross in the air, lii9, 144; his 
courage, 120; his letter in prospect 
of martyrdom, 122; liar mgues the 
Huronsat & ftstin d' aditu. 123; com- 
mences a mission in the Neutral 
Nation, 143 ; sees miraculous sights, 
144; at the Huron mission, 370; 
taken by the Iroquois, 381; his 
appalling fite, 388; his intrepid 
character, 3"J0; his skull preserved 
to this day at Quebec, 391 ; his vis- 
ions and revelations, 392 note; a 
saint and a hero, ib. 

Bressani, Joseph, attempts to go to the 
Iluroiis, 251; taken by the Jroquois, 
252; terrible sufi'erings from Lis oop- 
tors, 253-255; his escape, 256; at 
the Huron Mission. 370. 

Brule, Ktienne, murdered hy the Hu- 
rons, 56: the murder supposed to be 
avenged by a raging pe.stilence, 94. 

Bullion, .Madame de, founds a hospi- 
tal at Montreal, 266. 

Burning of captives alive, instances 
of, xlv n>tt, 80-82, 249. 250, 309, 
339, 385, 436 note, 439, 441 imU. 

Buteux, Jac(iues, his toilsome journe)', 
421; waj'laid by the Iroquois and 
Rlu.iu, 422. 



Cajinibalism of the Hurons, xxxix, 
137, of the Miamis, xl; ether in- 
stances, 247. 

Canoes, Indian, xxxi. 

Capuchins, unsuccessful attempt to 
introduce them into Canada, 159 
ruite ; a station of them on the Pe- 
nobscot, 322. 

Cayugas, one of the Five Nations, 
xlviii note, liv. See Iroqwris. 

Cemeteries of Indians lately opened, 
79; description of them, ib. 

Chabanel, Noel, joins the mission, 105 ; 
among the Hurons, 370; recalled 
fi'om St. Jean, 408; liis journey, ib. ; 
murdered bv a renegade Huron, 4u9 ; 
his vow, 410 note. 

Chainptieur, commandant at Three 
Rivers, 277, 285. 

Champlain, Samuel de, resumes com- 
mand at Quebec, 20; his explora- 
tions, 45; intnxluces themissi(inaries 
to the Hurons, 48; assists the mis- 
siunaries at tlieir departure, 50; his 
death, 149. 

Chatelain, Pierre, joins the mission, 
86; his illness, ib. ; his peril, 12C. 

Chaumonot, Joseph Marie, his early 
life, 101-104: his gratitude to the 
Virgin, 103, 105; becomes a Jesuit, 
and embarks for Canada, 105, 181; 
narrowly escapes death, 124; goes 
with Bri'beuf to convert the Neu- 
trals, 142; his extreme peril, 145; 
saved by the interference of Saint 
M ichael, ib ; among the Hurons, 370 ; 
with a colonv of Hurons, near Que- 
bec, 431; builds Lorette, 432. 

Choct.iws, like the Iroquois, have eight 
clans, Ivi note. 

Clanship, system of, 1-lii. 

Clock of the Jesuits an object of won- 
der to the Hurons, 61; an object of 
alarm. 115. 

Colonization, French and English, 
compared, 328, 329. 

Conde, in his youth writes to Paul Le 
.leune, 152. 

Conestogas. See Andasles. 

Converts, how made, 133, 162 seq. 

Couillard, a resident in Quebec, 3, 334, 
335. 

Councils of the Iroquois, tlieir power, 
Ivii-l.x. 

Council, nocturnal, of the Hurons, 
relative to the epidemic in 1637, 118. 

Couture, Guiilaume, a duniie of the 
mission, 214; a prisoner to the Iro- 
quois, 216; toituied by them, 216, 



INDEX. 



455 



223; adopted by them, 223; assists 
in nej^otiations for peace, 284,287; 
returns witli the Iroquois, 296. . 

Crania of Indians compared with those 
of Caucasian races, xliii. 

Credulity and superstition of the In- 
dians, 301. 

Crime, how punished, Ixi. 

Cruelties, Indian, xlv note, 80, 216 
seij., 24S, 253, 254, 277, 303 seq., 
308 seq., 313. 339, 350, 377, 381, 385, 
388 .tcq , 436 wle, 439, 441 7iute. 

Custom, with tlie Indians, had the 
force of law, xlix. 



D. 

DaJicnfnJis, found east of the Missis- 
sip|)i, XX, note; their villages, xxvi. 

E'Ailleboust de Coulonj^^es, Louis, 
lands at Montreal, 264; history, 265 ; 
fortifies Montreal, 266; becomes gov- 
ernor of Canada, 330, 332. 

Daily life of the Jesuits, 129; their 
food, ib ; how obtained, 130. 

Dallion, La Kociie, visits the Neutral 
Nation in 1626, xliv; exposed to 
great danger among them, xlvi note, 
146. 

Daniel, Antoine, 5, 20, 48; commences 
his journey to the Huron country, 
53; disasters by the way, 55; his 
arrival in the Huron country, 58; 
his peril, 126; returns to (iuehec to 
commence a seminary, 168; labors 
with success anionir the Hurons, 374; 
slain bj' the Irofpiois, 377. 

Dauversiere, Jt'rome le Rover de la, 
described, 188; hears a voice from 
heaven, 189; has a vision, 191; 
meets Olier, 192; plans a religious 
community at Montreal, ib. ; one of 
the purchasers of the island, 195 ; 
his misgivings, 197. 

Davost at Quebec, 5, 20, 48; sets out 
on his journey to the Huron coun- 
try, 53; robbed and left behind by 
his conductors, 54 ; his arrival among 
the Hurons, 58. 

De Nouij, Anne, a missionary, 5,14; 
perishes in the snow, 257-260. 

Des Cliate'lets, an inhabitant of Que- 
bec, 334. 335. 

Devil, worslii]iped,lxxiv,lxxvi,lxxvii; 
his supposed alarm at the success of 
the mission, 113; consequences, 114 
seq. 

Dimondadies, See Tubacco Nation. 

Disease, how accounted for, xl, xli; 
how treated, ib. 



Divination and sorcerj', Ixxxiv, IxxxT. 

Dogs sacrificed to tlie Great Spirit, 
Ixxxvi; used at Montreal for senti- 
nels. 271; very useful, 272. 

" Bonnes " of the mission, 112 note, 
214, 364. 

Dreams, confidence of the Indian in, 
Ixxxiii, Ixxxiv, Ixxxvi ; '' Dream- 
Feast,"' a scene of frenzy, 67. 

Dress of the Indians, xx.-cii: scarcely 
worn in summer, xxxiii. 

Druilletes, Gabriel, his labors among 
the Montagnais, 318; among the 
Abenaquis on the Kennebec, 321, 
323 ; visits English settlements in 
Maine, 322 ; again descends the Ken- 
nebec, and visits Boston, 324, 325; 
object of the visit, 324; visits Gov- 
ernor Dudley at Koxbury. 326, and 
Governor Bradford at Plymouth, 
327; spends a night with Eliot at 
Koxbury, ib.; visits Endicott at Sa- 
lem, ib.; his impressions of New 
England, 328; failure of his em- 
bassy, 330, 

Dudley, Thomas, governor of Massa- 
chusetts, kindly receives the Jesuit 
Druilletes, 326. 

Dn Peron, Francois, his narrow escape, 
124; his journey, 127; his arrival, 
128; his letter, 130; at Montreal, 
203. 

Du Quen, journeys of, xxv note, 318. 

Dutch at Albany supply the Iroquois 
with tire-arms, 211, 212; endeavor 
to procure the release of prisoners 
among the Mohawks, 230. 



E. 

Eliot, John, the " apostle," has a visit 
from the Jesuit Druilletes, 327. 

Endicott, Jolin, visited by the Jesuit 
Druilletes, 327. 

Enthusiasm for the mission, 85 note. 

Erie, Lake, how early known as such, 
143. 

Eries, or Nation of the Cat, xlvi; 
where found in the early periods, xx, 
xlvi; why so called, xlvi note; war 
with the Iroquois, 438; its cause, 
439; a sister's revenge, ib. ; utter 
destruction of the Eries, 440. 

Etcheniin<, where found, xxii. 

Etienne Annaotaha, a Huron brave, 
destrovs an Iroquois war-party, 427- 
429; s'lain, 431 

Exaltation, mental, of the priests, 146. 

Excursions, missionary, 132. 



456 



IKDEX. 



F. 

Faillon, Abb^, his researches in the 
early historj' of Montreal, 193 twte; 
their value, ib. 

Fancamp, Baron de, furnishes money 
for the undertaking at Montreal, 193 ; 
one of the purchasers of the island, 
195. 

Fasts among the Indians, Ixxi. 

" Feast of the Dead," 72. 

Feasts of the Indians, xxxvii. 

Female life among the Hurons, xxxiii. 

" Ftslins d'adieu," 123. 

Festivities of the Hurons, xxxvii. 

Fire, Nation of, attacked by the Neu- 
tral Nation, 436. 

Fire- arms sold to the Iroquois by the 
Dutch, 211, 212; given to couverts 
by the French, 269. 

Fish, and tishing-uets, prayers to them, 
Ixix. 

Fortifications of the Hurons, xxix; of 
the Irocjuois, ib. nute ; of other In- 
dian tribes, xxx note. 

Fortitude, striking instances of, 81, 250, 
339, 3b9. 

French and English colonization com- 
pared, 3iX, 329. 

Funeral among the Hurons, 75 ; funeral 
gilts, 76. 

Fur trade, xlv, 47, 155, 331. 

G. 

Gambling, Indian, xxxvii. 

Garnier, Charles, joins the Huron mis- 
sion, 86; his sickness, ib. ; his char- 
acter, 99; his letters, 10 1, 133; his 
journey to the Tobacco Nation, l4i); 
at the "Huron mission, 370; slain by 
the Iroquois, 405; his body found, 

406 milt ; his gentle spirit, 370, 407 ; 
his absolute devotion to the mission, 

407 note. 

Garnier, Julien, liv note. 

Gari^au, missionary among the Hu- 
rons, his danger, 410. 

Gaspe, Algunquins of, their women 
cliaste, xxxiv. 

George, Lake, its first discoverer, 219; 
its Indian name, ib note; called 
St. Sacrament, 2y9; a better name 
proposed, ib. note. 

Gibbons, Edward, welcomes the Jesuit 
Druilletes to Boston. 325. 

Gitfard, his seigniory of Beauport, 155, 
157 ; at Quebec, 334. 

Gluttony at feasts, xxxviii; practised 
as a cure for pestilence. 95. 



Godefroy, Jean Paul, visits N"e-w Ha- 
ven on an embassy from the gover- 
nor of Canada, 330. 

Goupil, Rent?, a doniie of the mission, 
214 ; made prisoner by the Iroquois, 
216; tortured, 217, 221; murdered in 
cold blood, 224. 

Goyogouin, a name fee the Cayugas, 
xlviii note. 

Great Hare, The. See Manahozho. 

Green Bav, visited bv the French in 
1639, 166. 

H. 

Habitations, Indian, xxvi; internal 
aspect in summer, xxvii; in winter, 
x.xviii. 

Hawenniio, the modem Iroquois name 

for God. Ixxviii. 

Ht^'bert, ^ladame, an early resident of 
Quebec, 2, 15. 

Hell, how represented to the Indians, 
8s, 163; pictures of, 163. 

Hiawatha, a deified hero, Ixxvii, 
Ixxviii. 

ITodenosriunee, the true name of the 
Iroquois, xlviii note. 

Hotel-Dieu at Quebec founded, 181, 
one at Montreal, 266. 

Hundred Associates, the, a fur com- 
pany, its grants of iand, 156; their 
quit-claim of the island of Montreal, 
195; transfer their monopoly to the 
colonists, 331. 

Hunters of men, 307. 

Huron mission proposed, 42; the diffi- 
culties, 43; motives for the under- 
taking, 44; route to the Huron coun- 
try, 45; the missionaries baffled by 
a stroke of Indian diplomacy, 51; 
they commence their journey, 53; 
fatigues of tiie way, ib. ; reception of 
the missionaries by the Hurons, 57 ; 
mission house, 60; methods taken 
to awaken interest, 61; instructions 
given, 62; the results not satisfac- 
tory, 64; the Jesuits made respon- 
sible for the I'ailure of rain, 68; they 
gain the confidence of the Huron 
people, 70; the mission strength- 
ened by new arrivals, 85 ; kindness 
of the Jesuits to the sick, 87 ; their 
efforts at conversion, 88; the Hurons 
slow to apprehend the subject of a 
future life, 89 ; terms of salvation too 
hard, 90; an elastic morality prac- 
tised by the Jesuits, 97; conversions 
promoted by supernatural aid, 108; 
the new chapel at Ossossan6 de- 
scribed, 111 ; tirst important success, 



INDEX 



45' 



112 ; persecuting spirit aroused, 115 ; 
the Jesuits in danger, 116; their 
dail}' life, 129 ; numbec. of converts 
in 1638, 132; backsliding frequent, 
135; partial success, 147; great sub- 
sequent success of the mission, 349 ; 
the mission encounters slander and 
misrepresentation, 352, 353; pros- 
perit}', 366; successful agriculture, 
ib. ; number of ecclesiastics and oth- 
ers in the Huron mission, 1649, ib. ; 
the mission removed to an island in 
Lake Huron, 397; a multitude of 
refugees, 399 ; their extreme misery, 
400; the priests fully occupied, 401; 
the mission abandoned, 415 ; failure 
of the Jesuit plans in Canada, 446; 
the cause, 447; the consequences, 
448. See Jesuits, 
lurons, origin of the name, xxxiii 
note; their countrj-, xx, xxiv, xxv; 
had a language akin to the Iroquois, 
xxiv; their disappearance, ib.; ves- 
tiges of them still found, xxv ; sup- 
posed population, xxv, xxvi; their 
habitations, xxvi, xxviii note ; ex- 
travagant accounts, xxvi note ; inter- 
nal aspect of their huts in summer, 
xxvii; in winter, xxviii; their for- 
tifications, xxix; their agriculture, 
XXX ; food, i6.; arts of life, ib,; dress, 
xxxii ; dress scarcely worn in sum- 
mer, xxxiii ; female life, i6., xxxv ; 
an unchaste people, xxxiv; mar- 
riages, temporarj', ib.; shameless con- 
duct of young people, xxxv note; 
employments of the men, xxxvi; 
amusements, ib.; feasts and dances, 
xxxvii; voracity, xxxviii; canni- 
balism, xxxix; practice of medicine, 
xl; Huron brains, xliii; the Huron 
Confederacy, lii; their political or- 
ganization, ib.; propensity of the 
Hurons to theft, Ixiii, 131; murder 
atoned for by presents, Ixi ; proceed- 
ings in case of witchcraft, Ixiii ; their 
objects of worsliip, Ixix seq.; their 
conceptions of a future state, Ixxxi ; 
their burial of the dead, ib.; hostility 
of the Iroquois, 45, 52, 62; visit 
Quebec, 46 ; the scene after their 
arrival described, 47 ; their idea of 
thunder, 69 ; Huron graves, 71 ; 
their origin, ib.; disposal of the 
dead, 73; "Feast of the Dead," 75 
seq.; disinterment, 73; mourning, 
74, 78; funeral gifts, 76; frightful 
scene, 77; a pestilence, 87; canni- 
bals, 137 ; attacked by the Iroquois, 
212, 337; defeat them, 338; torture 
and burn an Iroquois chief, 339; on 
the verge of ruin, 341; apply for 



help to the Andastes, 342 ; specimen 
of Huron eloquence, 355; Hurons 
defeat the Iroquois at Three Rivers, 
374; fatuity of the Hurons, 379; 
their towns destroyed, 379 seq.; ruin 
of the Hurons, 393; the survivors 
take refuge on Isle St. Joseph, 399; 
their extreme miserj', 411 seq.; they 
abandon the island, 415; endeavor 
to reach Quebec, 416; the Iroquois 
waylay them, 417 ; a fight on the 
Ottawa, ib.; t\\%j reach Montreal, 
418; and Quebec, ib.; a Huron trai- 
tor, 419; a portion of the Hurons 
retreat to Lake Michigan and the 
Mississippi, 425; others become in- 
corporated with the Senecas, 424; 
their country desolate, ib.; after- 
wards known as the Wyandots, 426 ; 
a body of the Hurons left at St. Jo- 
seph destroy a part}' of Iroquois, 
427-429; a colony of Hurons near 
Quebec, 430. 



Ihonatiria, a Huron village, 57; Brd- 
beuf takes up his abode there, 59; 
ruined by the pestilence, 137. 

Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, 
110. 

Incarnation, Marie de 1', at Tours, 
174; her unhappy man-iage, 175; 
a widow, ib ; self-inflicted austeri- 
ties, ib.; mystical espousal to Christ, 
176; rhapsodies, ib.; dejection, 177; 
abandons her child and becomes a 
nun, 178; her talents for business, 
179; her vision, 180; the vision ex- 
plained as a call to Canada, 181; 
embarks for that countrj', ib.; peril- 
ous voyage, 182; her arduous labors 
at Quebec, 185 ; her diiiiculties, 186 
extolled as a saint, 177, 186. 

Indian population mutable, xix ; its 
distribution, xx; two great families 
ib.; superstitions and traditions, 
Ixvii - Ixxxvii ; dreamers, Ixxxiii, 
sorcerers and diviners, Ixxxiv, 93 ; 
their religion fearful yet puerile, 
Ixxxviii, 94; an Indian lodge, 141; 
Indian manners softened by the in- 
fluence of the missions, 319; Indian 
infatuation, 336. 

Indians, their arts of life, xxx; amuse- 
ments, xxxvi; festivals, xxxvii; 
social character, xlviii; self-control, 
xlix ; influenced bv custom, ib.; hos- 
pitality and generosity, ib. note ; fond 
of society, 1 ; their division into clans, 
li ; the totem, or symbol of the claa, 



89 



458 



INDEX. 



t&.," Indian rule of descent and in- 
heritance, lb.; vast extent of this 
rule, lii; tiieir superstitions, Ixvii et 
seq.; tiieir cosmogonies, Ixxiii, Ixxv; 
4egradinj^ couceptinns of the Su- 
preme Being, Ixxviii; no word for 
God, Ixxix; obliged to use a cir- 
cumlocution, ib.; tlieir belief in a fu- 
ture state, Ixxx; their conceptions 
of it dim, iO.; tiieir belief in dreams, 
Ixxxiii; the Indian Pluto, ib. note; 
the Indian mind stagnant, Ixxxix; 
savage in religion as in life, ib.; no 
knowledge of the true God, ib.; 
scenes in a wigwam, 30; their foul 
language, 31; not profane, i6 ; hard- 
ships and sufferings, 39; a specimen 
of their diplomacy, 51; an Indian 
masquerade, 66; Indian bacchanals, 
67 ; their idea of tliunder, 69 ; Indian 
mind not a blank, 134; specimen of 
Indian reasoning, 135; Indians re- 
ceived beiielit flToiu the Jesuit mis- 
sions, 164. 

Initiatory fast for obtaining a guardian 
manitou, Ixxi. 

"Infernal Wolf," the, 117; a name for 
the Devil, ib. note. 

Influence of the missions salutary, 
319. 

Instructions for the missionaries to the 
Hurons, 54. 

Intrepid conduct of the Jesuits. 125. 

Iroquois, or Five Nations, origin of the 
name, xlvii; where found in early 
times, XX, xlvi, 278 note; their 
dwellings, xxvii nate, xxviii iwte ; a 
licentious people, xxxiv note ; have 
capacious skulls, xliii 7iole ; burn 
female captives, xlv; their charac- 
ter, xlvii; their eminent position 
and influence, ib.; their true name, 
xlviii note; divided into eight clans 
or families, Iv; symbols of these 
clans, ib. note; the chiefs, how se- 
lected, Ivi; the councils, Ivii, how 
and when assembled, Iviii; how con- 
ducted, lix; their debates, ib ; strict 
unanimity required, ib.; artful man- 
agement of the chiefs, Ix note ; the 
professed orators, Ixi; inilitaiy or- 
ganization, Ixiv; and discipline, ii ; 
spirit of the confederacy, Ixv; at- 
tachment to ancient forms, ib.; their 
increase by adoption, Ixvi ; popula- 
tion at different times, ib. note; have 
no name for God. Ixxviii; a captive 
Iroquois sacriliced by the Hurons to 
the god of war, 80 ; supplied by the 
Dutch with tire-arms, 211; make 
war on the French in Canada, 212, 
269 seq.; extreme cruelty to Jogues 



and other prisoners, 217-222, 228; 
cannibalism, 228, 250; audacitv, 
241; attack Fort Richelieu, 244; 
spread devastation and terror through 
Canada, 245, 251; horrible nature of 
their waii'are, 246-250; torments 
inflicted on prisoners, 248 seq., 271; 
an Iroquois prisoner tortured by 
Algonciuins, 277 ; treaty of peaco 
witli the French and Algonciuins, 
284 seq.; numbers of the Iroquois, 
29T note; the Iroquois determination 
to destroy the Ilurons, 336; their 
moral superiority, 337; a defeat sus- 
tained by them, 338; their shame- 
less treachery, 339; invade the Hu- 
ron country and destroy the towns, 
379; their atrocious cruelty, 385; 
their retreat, 386; they pursue the 
remnants of the Huron nation, 412, 
425; attack the Atticamegues, 420; 
attack the Hurons at Micliilimacki- 
nac, 425; exterminate the Neutral 
Nation, 437; exterminate the Eries, 
438-440; teirible cruelty, 441 note; 
their bloody supremacy, 444; it cost 
them dear, ib.; tyrants of a wide 
wilderness, 445; their short-sighted 
policy', 434. • 



J. 

Jesuits, their founder, 8; their disci- 
pline, 11; their iiiHuence, 12; salu- 
tary, 319; the early Canadian Jesu- 
its did not meddle with political 
affairs. 323; denounced cannibalism, 
but faint in opposing the burning or 
prisoners, 351; were engaged in the 
fur-trade, 365 note ; purity of their 
motives, 83, 85 ; benevolent care of 
the sick, 87, 98, 267 ; accused of sor- 
cery, 120; in great peril, 121; their 
intrepidity, 125; their prudence, 134; 
their intense zeal, 146. See Huron 
Mission. 

Jogues, Isaac, his birth and character, 
214; joins the mission, 86; his ill- 
ness, lb ; his character, 106. 304; his 
journey to the Tobacco Nation, 140; 
visits Lake Superiin- and preaches to 
the Ojibwas, 213; visits Quebec, 
214; taken prisoner bv the Iroquois, 
216; tortured by them, 217, 218, 
221, 222; in daily expectation of 
death, 224, 225 ; his conscientious- 
ness, 226, 229, 232 ; his patience, 
226; his spirit of devotion, 227; 
longs for death, 228 ; his pious labors 
while a captive, ib.; visits Albany, 
229; writes to the comniandai't at 



INDEX. 



459 



Three Rivers, 230; escapes, 234; 
voyage across the Atlantic, 236; 
reception in France, 237 ; the queen 
honors him, 23b; returns to Canada, 
239, 2Sti; his mission to the Mo- 
hawivS, 21*7; misgivings, 298; has a 
presentiment of death, ib.; goes as 
a civilian, ib ; v.s'ts Kort Orange, 
299; reaches the .Mohawk country, 
ib ; his reception, ib.; returns to 
Canada, 300 ; his second mission to 
the JNIoiiawks, 301 ; warned of dan- 
ger, ib.; his cruel murder, 304. 

Joseph, Saint, his interposition in a 
case of childbirth, 90; his help much 
relied on by the Jesuits, 70, 95, 96 ; 
fireworks let off in his honor, 160. 
See Scant Joseph. 

J(mskel)a, a. beneficent deity, the sun, 
the creator, Ixxvi, Ixxix. 

K. 

Kennebec, visited by a Jesuit, 322. 

Kieft, Willianr, governor of New 
Netherland, his kindness to Jogues, 
235; his letter to the governor of 
Canada, 304 uote. 

Kiotsaton, envoy of the Iroquois, 284 
seq.; his speech, 287 seq.; the French 
delighted Avith him, 291; another 
Rpeech, 292. 



Lafitnu, his book on the Iroquois, liv 
note ; describes the council of the 
Iroquois, Ivii, Iviii. 

Lalande, an assistant in the mission, 
301; tortured bv the Mohawks, 303; 
killed by them, '304. 

Lalemant, Gabriel, at the Huron mis- 
sion, 126, 371; taken by the Iro- 
quois, 381; tortured with fire, 388; 
his death, 390. 

La. ;mant, .Jerome, brother of Gabriel, 
assailed liyan Algonquin, 127; visits 
Three Rivers, 294; becomes Supe- 
rior of llie missions, 301. 

Lausoii, jiresident of the Canada Fur 
Company, 156; sells the island of 
Montreal to the Jesuits, 194. 

Le Berger, a Christian Iroquois, 304 ; 
endeavors to save .logues, ib. 

Le Borgne, chief of Allumette Island, 
hinders the departure of the mission- 
aries, 50; his motives, 51; convert- 
ed, 268. 

Le Jeune, Paul, Father Superior, his 
voyage, 15: his arrival in Quebec, 



2, 15; begins his labors there, 16; 
joins an Indian hunting-party, 23} 
adventures in this connection, 25- 
39 ; his description of a winter scene, 
26 note ; grievances in an Indian 
lodge in winter, 27; experience with 
a sorcerer, 30; suffers the rude ban- 
ter of the Indians, (6 ; doubts wheth- 
er the Indian sorcerers are impostors 
or in league with the devil, 32; re- 
lates wliat he had been informed of 
the devil's proceedings in Brazil, 
33 note ; attempts to convert a sor- 
cerer, 37; disappointment, 39; re- 
turns to Quebec, 40: rejoices at the 
advent of the new governor, 150 
note ; rejoices at the interest in the 
mission awakened in France, 151; 
has for a correspondent tlie future 
Cond(^, 152 ; is invested with civil 
authority, 154; sends for pictures of 
the torments of hell, 163. 

Le Mercier, Francis Joseph, joins the 
mission, 85; bis peril, 125. 

Le Moyne, among tbe Hurons, 126, 
among the Onondagas, 438, 440. 

Licentiousness of the Indians, xxxiv 
note ; xxxv note, xlv. 

Life in a wigwam, 27-31. 

Loretto, in Italy, 102, 105, 432; Old 
Lorette, in Canada, 431; New Lo- 
rette, in Canada, 432; settlement of 
Hurons there, ib- 

Loyola, Ignatius, his story, 8; founds 
the order of Jesuits, 9; his book of 
Spiritual Exercises, 10. 



M. 

Maisonneuve, Chomedey, Sieur de, 
military leader of the settlement at 
Montreal, 196 ; spends the first win- 
ter at Quebec, 202; poorly accom- 
modated there, 203; has a quarrel 
with the governor, 204 ; beloved by 
his followers, 205 ; compared to God- 
frev, the leader of the first crusade, 
207; lands at Montreal, 208, 261; 
plants a cross on the top of the 
mountain, 263 ; his great braverv, 
275. 

3fanabozho, a mythical personage, 
Ixviii ; the chief deity of the Algon- 
quins, yet not worshipped, Ixxii, 
Ixxix; liis achieven^ents, Ixxiii. 

Mance, Jeanne, devotes herself to the 
mission in Canada, 198; embarks, 
201; impressive scene before em- 
barking, ib ; lands at JMoutreal, 
208, 261. 

Manitous, a generic term for super* 



460 



INDEX 



natural beings, Ixix; extensive in 
its nieanin,t,% Ixx; process tor ob- 
taining a guardian manitou, ib. 
Marie, a Cliristian Algonquin, her ad- 
ventures and sufferings, 309-313. 
Marriage among tiie Ilurons often tem- 

po]'ary and experimental, xxxiv. 
Mass, neglect of the, a punishable 

otfence, l-")-l, 157. 
Masse, 5, 20; '"le Pere Utile," ib.; his 

deatli, 260. 
Medical practice among the Indians, 

xli, xlii wttt ; Ix.Kxiv, 6(3. 
" .Medicine," or hulian cliarras, Ixxi. 
" Medicine-bag.s," Ixxi; •'medicine- 
men," or sorcerers, Ixxxiv, Ixxxv, 
32-38; a "medicine-feast," 66; the 
religion taught by the Jesuits sup- 
posed to be a " medicine," 90. 
Megapolensi.s, Dutch pastor iit Albany, 
229; his account of the Mohawks, 
ib.; befriends .Jogues, 23-5. 
Menior)-, devices for aiding the, Ixi. 
Afcssou. See .Mduabozho. 
Me.^tigoit, an Indi m hunter, 21, 24,29, 
34; his skill and courage, 40; helps 
Le Jeune to reach (Quebec, ib. 
Mexican fabrics found iu Indian ceme- 
teries, 79 mile. 
Tkliamis, cannibalism among them, xl. 
Michnbim. See Mumibnzhu. 
Micmacs in Nova Scotia, xxii. 
Minquas. • See Aiuliist(;s. 
Miracles in tlie Huron mission, 108; 
how to be accounted for, 109: why 
miracles were expected, 210 note. 
Miscou, mission at, 317. 
Mission to Hurons. See Iluron Mis- 

ahm. 
Mission-house near Quebec described, 

4. 
Mohawks, xlviii note, liv; number of 
warriors, 212, 297; their towns, 222; 
make peace with the French, 296; 
credulity and superstition, 301 ; their 
causeless rage. 303; renew the war 
with the Freiich, 306; their pirfidy, 
308 ; cruelty, ib ; torture of prison- 
ers, 309; invade the Huron country, 
379; furious battle near St Marie, 
384; war with tiie Andastes, 441, 
and Mohicans, ib. note. See Jro- 
qutiis. 
Montmagny, Charles Huault de, suc- 
ceeds X'hamplain as governor of 
New France, 149; his zeal for the 
mission, 150,161; meets the Ursu- 
lines at their landing, 182; quarrels 
with the leader of the ^Montreal set- 
tlement, 204; delivers Montreal to 
Maisonneuve, 208; builds a fort at 
Sorel, 242; called Onontio by the 



Iroquois, 283; negotiates a peacft 
with the Iroquois, 284 seq. 

Moiitagnais, an Algonquin tribe, where 
found, xxiii; their degradation, i6. , 
I^e Jeune essays their conversion 
19; concerned in a treaty of peace, 
286, 293; salutary changes from th» 
influence of the mission, 319. 

Montreal, island of, purchased for the 
site of a religious community, 195; 
part of the nmney given by ladies, 
198; consecrated to the Holy Fami- 
ly, 201 ; the entcr])rise compared 
with the crusades, 207 ; first day of 
the settlement, 209; motives of the 
enterprise, as stated by the leaflets 
themselves, 210 nale ; infancy of the 
settlement. 261 ; rise of the St. Law- 
rence checked by a wooden cross, 
263; arrival of D'Ailleboust and 
oiliers, 264; pilgrimages, 267; hos- 
jiital built, 2ii6; liidiaus fed, 268; 
attacks by the Iroquois, 269 seq.; 
sallv of the French, 273; condition 
of Montreal in 1651, 333. 

Jloon, the, worshipped, Ixxvi. 

MorL'an, Lewis IL, his account of the 
Iroquois, liv note. 

Murder atoned for by presents, 1x1, 
Ixii, 354 ; a grand ceremony of this 
sort, 355 stq. 

N. 

Nanabush. See Mnnnbozho. 

Nation of the Bear, liii. 

Nation of Fire, an Algonquin people, 
attacked by ihe Neutral Nation, 436. 

Neutral Nution, their country, xx, 
xliv, 142; their cruelty and licen- 
tiousness, xlv; representations made 
to them respecting the French, xlvi 
note; a ferocious people, 143; their 
excessive superstition, (6. ; a mission 
among them attempted, 142, but in 
vain, 146: kindness of a- Neutral 
woman, ib. ; destroy a large town 
of the Nation of Fire, 436 ; their fero- 
cious cruelty, ib. mite ; themselves 
exterminated by the Iroquois, 437. 

New England, Indians in, xxi; a Jes- 
uit's impressions of, 328, 

Niagara, called the liiver of the Neu- 
trals, xliv; described by the Jesuits, 
143 note. 

Nicollet, Jean, visits Green Bay ia 
1639, 166. 

Nipissings. xxiv. 

Notre-Dame dea Anges, at Quebec, 
5, 155 ; Notre-Dame de Montreal, 
193. 



INDEX, 



461 



O. 

Ochategidns. See TFurons. 
OJibwas, how differing in language 
from Algonquins, xk; visited by 
Jogues, 213. 
Okies, or Otkons, objects of worship 
among the Iroquois, Ixix. 

Olier, Jean Jacques, Abbe, sr^nected 
of Jansenism, 1S9; has a revelation, 
190; meets Dauversiere, 192; their 
schemes, ib. 

Oneidas, or Onnetjut, one of the Five 
Nations, xlviii note, liv. See Iro- 
quois. 

Onondagas, or Onrumtngue, one of the 
Five Nations, xlviii note, liv (see 
Iroquois); their inroad on the Hu- 
rons, 343; their jealousy of the Mo- 
hawks, 344; their embassy to the 
Hurons, 345; suicide of the ambas- 
sador, 347. 

Ononkwaya, an Oneida chief, a pris- 
oner to the Hurons, 338 ; his mar- 
vellous fortitude under torture, 339. 

Ononlio, Great Mountain, name given 
to the Governor of Canada among 
the Iroquois, and why, 283. 

Ontitarac, a Huron chief, his speech, 
119. 

Orators of the Iroquois, Ix. 

Ossossanf?, chief town of the Hurons, 
74; great Huron cemetery there, 75; 
mission established there, 110, 129; 
abandoned, 139. 

Ouendats, or VVyandots. See Hurons. 

P. 

Parker, Ely S., an educated Iroquois, 
liv note. 

Passionists, convent of, a singular in- 
cident there, 108 note. 

Peace concluded between the French 
and Iroquois, 284-295 ; detects of the 
treaty, 296; the peace broken and 
why" 302. 

Peltrfe, de la, Madame, her birth, 168 ; 
her girlhood, 169; a widow, ib ; re- 
ligious schemes, 170; resolves to go 
to Canada, ib.; her sham marriage, 
172; visits the Ursuline Convent at , 
Tours, 173; results of that visit, 174; 
embarks for Canada, 181; perilous 
voyiige, 182; her character, 186; 
thirst for admiration, 187 ; leaves 
the Drsulines and joins the Colony 
of Montreal, 206, 261; receives the 
sacrament on the top of the moun- 
tain, 264 ; at Quebec. 334, 

3 



Penobscot, a station on it of Capuchin 
friars, 322. 

Pestilence among the Hurons, 87; its 
supposed origin, 94. 

Persecution of the Jesuits, 116 seq. 

Pictures requested for the mission, 133; 
of souls m perdition, manj', ib.; of 
souls in bliss, one, ib.; how to be 
colored, ib.; Le Jeune describes the 
pictures of Hell which he wants, 
163. 

Picture-writing by the Indians, 243. 

Pierre, an Algonquin, 17; teacher of 
Le Jeune, 18; runs away, 21; re- 
turns, 22 ; frantic from strong drink, 
24; repents and assists Le Jeune, 
38; another of this name, a convert- 
ed Huron, 122. 

Pijart, Pierre, joins the mission, 85; 
his clandestine baptisms, 96, 97: es- 
tablishes a mission at Ossossan^, 

no. 

Piskaret, an Algonquin brave, 278; 
his exploits, 279; his successes 
against the Iroquois, 281 ; assists in 
a treatv of peace, 291; murdered by 
Mohawks, 308. 

Poncet, father, his pilgrimage to Lo- 
retto, 104; embarks tor Canada, 181; 
his peril, 126. 

Price of a man's life, Ixii; of a wo- 
man's, ib. 

Prisoners, cruel treatment of, xxxix, 
xlv, 80, 216 seq., 248 seq., 253, 277, 
339, 388 seq., 436 nofe, 439, 441 note. 

Processions, religious, at Quebec, 161, 



Q. 

Quatogies. See Hurons. 

Qualitications for success in an Indian 
mission, 134 note. 

Quebec in 1634, 1; its first settler, 3, 
condition in 1640, 154; its aspect 
half military, half monastic, 158; its 
very amusements acts of religion, 
160; state of things in 1651, 331; 
New-Year's Day, 1646, 334. 



R. 



Eaguereau, Paul, missionary among 

the Hurons, 123, 124, 126; relates 
proceedings of a council held re- 
specting a murder, 355 ; Father Su- 
perior, 370. 
Eaymbault, Ch.-irles, enters lake Su- 
perior with Jcgues, 213. 



462 



INDEX. 



Relif^ion and superstitions of the Indi- 
ans, Ixvii, et seq.; worship of mate- 
rial objects, inanimate no less than 
animate, ib.; the Indians attribute 
their orij^in to beasts, birds, and rep- 
tiles, Ixviii; all nature full of objects 
of religious fear and dread, Ixxxiv; 
sacrifices, Ixxxvi. 

Remarkable instance of Indian forgive- 
ness, 319. 

Rome. Church of, her .strange contra- 
dictions, 84; self-denial of her mis- 
sionaries, ib. 



s. 

Sacrifice a human, by fire, witnessed 
bv a missionary. 80 seq. 

Sacridcesof the Indians, lxxxv,lsxxvi 
note. 

St. Bernard, Alarie de, a nun at Tours, 
174 ; embarks for Canada, 181. 

St Ignace, town, taken by the Iroquois, 
38iJ; furious battle with the Hurons, 
384; the town and its inhabitants 
destroyed bv tire, 385 ; vestiges still 
remaining, li. iwte. 

St. Jean, town in the Tobacco Nation, 
attacked by the Iroquois, 405; de- 
stroyed by fire, 406. 

St. Joseph, a town in the Huron coun- 
try, 13", 374; surprised by the Iro- 
quois, 375, arid destroyed, 377; an- 
other station of this name on an 
island, 395; the Huron refugees re- 
pair thither, 399; their extreme 
misery, ib.; famine, 400. 

St. Louis, town in the Huron countrj', 
attacked. 3S0; severe strugjgle, 381; 
destroyed by the Iroquois, io- 

Ste. Marie, in the Huron country, a 
mission established there, 139; the 
place described, 362 seq ; a bountiful 
hospitality exercised towards the 
converts and others, 367; alarm and 
anxiety at the Iroquois invasion, 
382; the station abandoned, 394; 
stripped of all valuables, and set on 
fire, 396. 

Schoolcraft, Henry R., his Notes on 
the Iroquois, liv note : his mistakes, 
Ixxviii, Ixxx; his collection of Al- 
gonquin tales. Ixxxviii ; his unsatis- 
factory speculations about Huron 
graves, 71. 

Seminary, Huron, at Quebec, 167. 

Senecas, one of the Five Nations, 
xlviii note, liv. See Iroqwia. 

Sepulture among the Hurons, Ixxxi, 
71 seq. 



Sillery, Noel Brularf de, becomes a 
priest, 182; founds the settlement 
which bears his name, 183. 

Sioux punish adultery, xxxiv; harass 
the Hurons, 425. 

Sorcerer, a dwarfish, deformed one, 
troubles the Jesuits, 91 ; his account 
of his origin, 92; sorcerers, several, 
in time of mortal sickness, 93. 

Sorcery, as practised among the Indi- 
ans.'l.xxxiv, 32-38. 

Speech-making, Indian, 287, 292-294. 

Sun worshipped, Ixxvi. 

Supernaturalism of the Jesuits, 106; 
supposed etRcaty of relics and 
prayers to relieve pain and cure dis- 
ease, 107; conversions efl\;cted in 
this manner, 108; such views still 
entertained, as illustrated in a curi- 
ous incident, ib. 

Superstitions of the Indians, Ixvii seq., 
68. 

Superstitious terrors, Ixxxiv, 115, 141. 

Susquehannocks. See Amlnstes. 

Swedish colonists on the Delaware as- 
sist the Andastes, 442. 



Tarenyowagon, a powerful deity, 

Ixxvii. 
Tarrntines, the Abenaquis so called, 

xxii note. 
Tattooing practised, xxxiii; a severe 

process, ih. 
Teanauslay', 137. See St. Joseph. 
Tessouat, or Le Borgne, converted, 

268. 
Tionnontates. See Tobacco Nation. 
Tobacco Nation, or Tionnontate«, in 

league with the Hurons. xliii ; raised 

tobacco, 47: mi-<sion anio:'g them, 

140; reception of the mi-st^ionaries, 

141; periU of the missionarie-:, 142; 

some of the Hurons seek an asylum 

there, 393, 404. 
Tobacco, none in Heaven, a sad 

thought to the Indian, 136. 
Totems, emblems of clans, li, Ixviii. 

375. 
Trade in furs, xlv, 47, 155. 
Traffic of the Indians, how conducted, 

xxxvi. 
Treatment of women, xxxiv, xxxv; 

of prisoners, xxxix, xlv, 80, 216 seq., 

248 seq., 253, 254, 277, 339, 388, 439, 

441 note. 
Tuscaroras, in Carolina, xxi; unite 

with the Five Nations, xxi, Ixri. 



INDEX. 



46S 



U. 

Unchastity of the Indians, xxxiv note, 
xlv. 

Ursulines at Tours, 173; at Quebec, 
their labors, 184; their instructions, 
186. 



VDlemarie de Montreal, a three-fold 
religious establishment, 201, 261. 

Vimont, father, embarks for Canada, 
181; makes a vow to Saint Jo-eph, 
182; visits Montreal, 208; Superior 
of the Canadian Mission, 286 ; as- 
sists in a treaty of peace, 292. 

Visions and visitations from Heaven 
and from Hell fi-equent occurrences 
in the lives of tlie missionaries. 108; 
the subject illustrated by a curious 
incident, ib. note. 



w. 

Wampum, its material and uses, xxxi; 
served the purpose of records, xxxii, 
Ixi. 

War-dance, often practised for amuse- 
ment, xxxix. 

AVif^wam, how built, xxvii; inconve- 
niences in one. 27, 28. 

Wiimebagoes, their lesidence when 
first known to Europeans, xx ; 
known to the Jesuits in 1648, 368. 

Winslow, John, kindly receives the 
Jesuit Druilletes at Augusta, 322, 
325; his name in the Rtiatiuns, how 
spelled, 323 nute. 

Winter in Canada, 18, 26, 28. 

Witchcraft, proceedings in case of, 
Ixiii. 

Women, their condition, xxxiii, xxxiv, 
XXXV, xlv. 

Wyandots, a remnant of the Hurons. 
xxiv, 426. See Hurons. 



THE END. 



Cambridge : Press of John W'ilsuu <& Sou. 



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